Joseph Gordon-Levitt Quotes

When I was Younger, I wanted to be something.Now, I just want to be younger.

You see a woman on a screen and you reduce her to just a thing, a sex object.

Everyone has a unique perspective and that's valid. Everyone's perspective is valid. That doesn't mean that everyone has the same degree of skill level as an entertainer, but skill isn't the only important thing. It's also what kind of perspective and feelings you're bringing to it.

I knew that if I wanted to really maintain control, I would have to keep the budget down. And I did. And I feel very fortunate that - y'know, this movie [Don Jon] - frame for frame, line for line - is exactly what I wanted it to be. Nobody made me change anything.

I lost you when you left me to find yourself.

For context, the budget of Don Jon is about half the budget of (500) Days of Summer. And (500) Days of Summer is about a third of the budget of the lowest-budget movies produced at a major studio.

The Internet is allowing us to get back to what's really more natural, which is that storytelling is a shared thing. It's our natural way to be communal.

When I arrived at Columbia, I gave up acting and became interested in all things French. French poetry, French history, French literature.

I think Hollywood, as it's been, will have to change because the model of Hollywood is "we'll make this content, and you guys buy it," but I don't think that's the future.

Well, look who I ran into," crowed Coincidence. "Please," flirted Fate, "this was meant to be.

Supermarket tabloids and celebrity gossip shows are not just innocently shallow entertainment, but a fundamental part of a much larger movement that involves apathy, greed and hierarchy.

I think there is something beautiful in reveling in sadness

If you don't stick to your plan enough, and you're too seduced by whimsical notions and new ideas, you can kind of lose your train of thought and end up with something that doesn't have a solid through-line.

You're gone. No mailing address. But I send you letters anyway.

This is the saddest, most depressing music I've ever heard. It makes me so happy.

Celebrity doesn't have anything to do with art or craft. It's about being rich and thinking that you're better than everybody else.

Success is not important to me, nor are power or money. If the script feels good, then I'm in. It's that simple.

The cool thing about my character was that it's not that digital. I get to put hours of prosthetic makeup on and see a different creature altogether. I've seen how he looks and it's really cool.

A man touched me: his hand... my thigh. I touched him too: my fist... his jaw.

We couldn't afford test screenings. This is a relatively low-budget movie [Don Jon]. But what we did have was the festival circuit.

When I started editing on my home computer, I said to myself, 'Well, I could be at home studying for a class or I could be at home editing a video.'

My dad never blew anything up, but he probably had friends who did. He and my mom have always preached that the pen is mightier than a Molotov cocktail.

That's what life is: repetitive routines. It's a matter of finding the balance between deviating from those patterns and knowing when to repeat them.

If you're going to put yourself above everybody else, you might end up alone.

If the goal is to get the best artists, actors, and filmmakers in the world to create the best movies, Hollywood does a decent job. And I think no one would disagree with me that it also makes a ton of bad movies and employs a bunch of hacks.

"Music is something that professionals do and not something that I do." That's not natural. Music belongs to everybody.

Real life is not as simple as it is on a screen. I think real life is actually a lot more beautiful.

Every day I've got to be thankful that I am alive, and you never know - the cliche is, I guess, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so you'd better be at peace with whatever you got going at the moment.

But I would encourage anyone who has a crush on my character to watch it again and examine how selfish he is.

I think there is something beautiful in reveling in sadness. The proof is how beautiful sad songs can be. So I don’t think being sad is to be avoided. It’s apathy and boredom you want to avoid. But feeling anything is good, I think. Maybe that’s sadistic of me.

Why am I doing the work I'm doing? Why am I friends with this person? Am I living the best life I possibly can? Questions are often looked upon as questions of doubt but I don't see it that way at all. I question things to stay present, to make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.