Jason Bateman Quotes

Marathons are good training goals.

I'm a guy who is a little bit complicated and is a little bit in his own head and is not the most free-spirited, fun-loving kind of guy.

I would rather do three or four small parts every year as opposed to some of the lower-hanging fruit that might get my name above the title.

I never looked at fan mail, for some reason. My mother and grandmother handled my mail - although it's not like I was ever in the stratosphere of Kirk Cameron or Scott Baio.

Directing a movie is the greatest job in the world. I could not be more envious of the guys who get to do it all the time.

The longer you stay in the job that you do the more you learn about what those around you do. As an actor I've always nosed around apologetically about: "oh wouldn't it be interesting if I could do that?" I can't imagine not wanting to do this everyday.

I like being hired to do more and more stuff. Carry more and more responsibility. It's nice I'm getting that trust.

People have often asked if I'm gay because I don't go out of my way to spit and scratch and give people attitude.

I think you get the parts that people are comfortable with seeing you play. I get that. And I don't shy away from those parts.

By definition, gay is smart. I see plenty of macho heterosexual idiots, but nine times out of 10 you can have a great conversation if you find a gay guy.

I'd worked so hard that by the time I was 20, I wanted to play hard. And I did that really well.

I did a good bit of episodic television directing, but directing a movie is so much more complicated. And there's so much more responsibility because the medium is very much a director's medium. Television is much more of a producer's writer's medium so a lot of the time when you're directing a television show they have a color palette on set or a visual style and dynamic that's already been predetermined and you just kind of have to follow the rules.

I was just a lot smarter about not getting caught. I mean, I never stuck anything in my arm, but I certainly enjoyed my youth.

I remember my dad working with me on breaking down my script and writing out a back story for my character and all that stuff.

Acting is just playing the violin in an orchestra. Directing is being the conductor.

I really enjoy playing that everyman part because that part is us, the audience. And you need somebody inside a comedy to tether the absurdity to reality.

What's frustrating as an actor, when you want to work hard, you can only work once that phone rings and then you can only work until the production wraps. Then you have to find another job.

Guys like Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Sacha Baron Cohen, they do things you love to watch. I like to do the other half.

A straight factor is important in any comedy, because you need something to tee it up and also to ground it.

I just love doing sitcoms. I'd be in them till I was gray if they'd have me.

And I've always loved commercials. I like working out how to organically weave a brand's message into the writing process. It's like an improv show, where comics ask the audience to throw out a word and a skit is built around it.

I don't have anything to fix! I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I don't eat carbs. My life is just great now. Normal. Vanilla.

If I'm enjoying something, I'd like to be able to just have it all. Frankly, that's the way I'm approaching my career now. I'm a total workaholic.

My hobbies have varied over the years. There were a whole set of new ones before I got married. Now I spend as much time with my wife, who is my best friend.

Will Arnett is one of the funniest guys I know. He has seen it all and done it all and come out the other end pretty savvy and pretty strong.

I love a massage. I'd go every day if I could. I don't need to be wrapped in herbs like a salmon fillet, but I do love a massage.

I love a massage. I'd go every day if I could.

Our job, as actors, is to just try to be as accurate and as mindful of what the audience is going through and receiving and processing. If it's a situation where the character should look a little bit out of control or do something stupid, it's your job to act into that, in a believable way.

As an actor, you get hired for what you last did. And I guess it just becomes your choice or obligation to do different things.

I'm in bed by nine. Let's get on with it.

It takes some intelligence and insight to figure out you're gay and then a tremendous amount of balls to live it and live it proudly.

Not many get a chance to hit the career re-set button.

I actually enjoyed changing diapers and I enjoyed swaddling. I don't mind being swaddled either, on occasion.

I played a ton of team sports growing up, and team wins are just incredibly gratifying.

I think anybody who's doing work in their teen years on TV or in the movies, you're a teen idol by default.

I'm not much of a party guy anymore.

I'm in a little bit of a different situation, because working in the business that I do and living in the city that I live in, I haven't had a problem with people who are gay. Since I was 10 I've been working alongside them, and some of my best friends are gay.

I play around with my Japanese Garden. Since Im half way to 70 today I need to start pruning trees and sharpening plants like an old fart.

I don't worry about people misinterpreting my kindness for weakness.

I'm not a Hollywood party guy.

It is one of the few elements in the process that a director really, really can't control: an actor's performance. If you have a director that understands that, it's comforting to an actor. You're starting the relationship more as a collaborator, rather than as an employee or some kind of a soldier trying to execute something you don't organically feel.

When you know your mom and dad are doing things that are not idyllic, as far as your desire to defer to a parental ideal, you start to see your parents as peers, perhaps, and that's not the healthiest thing at that early an age.

I don't get a chance to cry that often on film, so I was hoping that talent would come my way, that day. I cheated, I guess, when I just started looking at my technology device - my iPhone - to look at pictures of my kids, before I did the scene where I had to cry. That was a good trick that I found.

Jennifer Aniston and I have always just really gotten along well... I was just fortunate to be a good fit for parts in her films.

Tony Hale is a devout Christian and is a complete retard when it comes to swearing. The script called for him to swear for about 30 seconds and he just couldn't do it.

I don't really find a problem with technology or television, or anything. I'm a product of it. I grew up watching TV, and I don't think I'm too dumb or too crazy.

I've always felt bad that I never had more information to give people when they asked me about it, but I guess people kind of got frustrated by that and they just started kind of making up their own sort of "well, we haven't heard that much" or "news hasn't changed so it must be going away".

I think the internet is a huge positive.