Jeff Bridges Quotes

If you're like me, I get hooked into to-do lists, you know. I'll say I checked that off. Okay, I did that. And you have all these things you're doing.

I confessed to Mike [Cimino] a couple of days before we shot. I was like, "What am I doing here, Mike?" And Mike just looked at me, in that very directorial manor, took a long pause, and he said, "You know the game tag?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "Well, you're it." That was some of the best direction I think I've ever received.

Sometimes you feel you're making something really special and when it comes out you might still feel that way but for some reason it doesn't get the audience. So many things have to come together to get a creatively successful and financially successful film.

Normally, after a movie, you know, you don't want to get up and do another one right away. That kind of pretend muscle or whatever you use making movies is kind of, you know, spent. And you have other things to do.

Always maintain a joyful mind. Appreciate the struggles as opportunities to wake up.

You have to find your tone and work within that to make it as real so the audience can really engage in the story you're telling.

You know, ballet might be too formal of a title for the type of dance I do, but I love to dance.

I remember in one of my early films I had a drunk scene. It was Kiss Me Goodbye, with Sally Field, and I was playing this kind of nerdy guy who gets drunk and dances. And so I thought, "Oh well, I'll just get drunk and do the dance." And it was wonderful, but then I had the rest of the day, and the next day. So I learned that you don't really have to do the things that your character is doing. But us actors, we use something called sense memory. I've certainly been drunk before, and part of my job is to recall that without getting drunk.

My wife holds the kite strings that let me go 'weeeeeee', then she reels me back in.

I'm pretty critical of myself as far as reaching some sort of perfect bull's-eye or target that I'm aiming for.

Every time I walk down one of those red carpets, you think I'd be used to it after all these years, but it's like it's happening for the first time.

It gives me more breadth as an actor and as an artist to not be pigeonholed.

I have hesitation making any kind of decision, really in my life. I'm really slow at it.

I don't have too many plans filled out. I know I want to keep doing more music. I've got a couple of albums worth of songs I'd like to put it out there. As far as movies, I just want to continue how I've been doing it: working with terrific people is certainly on my agenda, and then doing stories that interest me.

You don't want to vilify your ego.

If some crazy idea stays in my head for long enough, then there's no fighting it. I just say, Okay, let's go.

If you change partners every time it gets tough or you get a little dissatisfied, then I don't think you get the richness that's available in a long-term relationship.

Basically, one of the hardest things about being an actor is getting your first break. I'm a product of nepotism. The doors were open to me. I'd done several movies before I decided what I wanted to do.

I'm a big fan of country.

One of the things that I find so exciting about life is that you're constantly surprised. You never know what's going to happen, and it's certainly like that making movies; every once in a while, one will come along that transcends all of your expectations.

A fool and his money are quickly parted.

For me and my wife, it was love at first sight.

To go into therapy is an adventure, not really to iron anything out.

The more nervous you get, the more worried you get about something... Maybe you just need to take a nap.

As far as Beau is concerned, we're on the same team, we root for each other. If my parts are slightly more attractive, or are perceived that way by others, he's very content.

There are some actors that want you to call them by their character's name and they have no relationship with you outside of the character. But I like to get to know who I'm working with so that we can relax together, and it's more fun.

Whenever I work on a part, I look at the world through the filter of the character and I pick things they might use through my observations of real life.

I had success as an actor relatively early. When I was 22, I got nominated for an Academy Award for The Last Picture Show, so that road, you know, had the least resistance. I was doing my music all that time, but it's pretty hard to turn down these great movie offers. And my father counseled me; he said, "You know, one of the wonderful things about acting is that you can incorporate all of your interests into the different parts you play." I'm glad I listened to the old man, because that's the way it turned out.

I have a cycle that is not particularly cool, but it's a cycle: trash myself to reward myself.

It's like that perfection thing, trying to be that thing you're not. You have to feel that discomfort and not try to get rid of it. Accept that aspect and get into it. Acknowledge those feelings and let them be. You are who you are.

When you start to engage with your creative processes, it shakes up all your impulses, and they all kind of inform one another.

A lot of people don't really understand what rehearsal's about. People are afraid they're gonna leave it in the dressing room, or you're gonna shoot your wad in rehearsal.

You kind of notice what's going on in your body, and you can kind of feel a certain tightening, or fear, which is something that, as an artist, I've kind of befriended. I can pretty much count on it for anything that I engage in - that thing like, "Am I going to be able to pull this off?" Well, what am I gonna do with this feeling? The more nervous you get, the more worried you get about it. So you pay attention to what you might need.

Normally, we push away the things we're scared of.

I did [Michael Cimino] first movie, "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot," and I remember I was still in my twenties and very nervous, we're shooting up in Montana, and I'm thinking, "What the hell am I doing here? I don't feel anything like this part.

A fella who accepts himself and is relaxed into who he is - that appeals to people.

I like to think of myself as a character actor, though there's some redundancy in that...

If you're married you'll have tough times.

35 million people in the U.S. are hungry or don't know where their next meal is coming from, and 13 million of them are children. If another country were doing this to our children, we'd be at war.

Well, I'm not a big sports fan.

I'm in New Mexico making a movie called "Granite Mountain." I'm playing the head of the organization called Statesman, which is the United States version of Kingsman. I'm like how Michael Caine was in the original.

Making a film, it uses a certain... 'pretend-muscle,' I don't know what you want to call it. It exhausts something in me, I find. It has to be really something to get me interested.

I've worked with a lot of kids, and when you're working with kids they have certain hours that they have to work.

He [Michael Cimino] wasn't the typical filmmaker. I don't know if he had more in him, he certainly had a lot of scripts. I know he wrote a hell of a lot.

When you're a professional you gotta do it [your job] when you don't feel like doing it.

You can change things, you can make things better.

You don't really have to do the things that your character is doing. But us actors, we use something called sense memory. I've certainly been drunk before, and part of my job is to recall that without getting drunk.

You can relate to somebody's pain and you have compassion, which can lead to intimacy.