Rob lowe quotes

We [me,Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson ] rehearsed [Suddenly, Last Summer] like a play for a month, and then we shot it over the course of... I believe it was 10 days. All live, basically. Long, uninterrupted takes. And for me, a lot of it is me going head to head with Maggie Smith. And anybody who's ever had that opportunity never forgets it! It's a real career highlight, and it was everything I ever thought it would be, and more.

In no way would I ever assume when I meet some girl that she wants to sleep with me; that doesn't enter my mind. I think somebody who did assume that would be such an insufferably arrogant person that you couldn't be around him.

I have a lot of great memories, but I can't imagine anything more exciting than the life I have now.

The fact is, I have a great home and I like to have people come up. I meet enough people just doing my grocery shopping; I don't need to go out and meet any more people.

I think part of maturity is knowing who you are.

I think I have a pretty good ear. I mean, even just starting with, like, Austin Powers, where I did young Robert Wagner. People were, like, "How do you imitate Robert Wagner? What does he sound like? What does that even involve?".

I remember Tucker Toomey was named so because "T's are funny!" And if Garry Marshall says it's funny, by god, it must be so.

One of my favorite books [The Stand] of all time. I grew up reading it.

If people are watching me 365 days a year, 360 days they might be bored to tears. And on the other five days, maybe I would qualify as Satan.

There is good and evil in each of us, and you can easily be led to the dark side.

It's the media that take an isolated incident and make it a deciding factor in a presidential campaign, as opposed to the real issues, like abortion, the homeless, the deficit. The same is true with actors and their lifestyles.

I literally knew nothing when I did that show ["Tony Flanagan"]. It was the first time I signed an autograph, it was the first time I got fan letters, it was the first time people screamed when I came out.

Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself.

The press concentrates on a divorce an actor's going through and they ignore the good performances he gives, or the causes that he works for.

The best part is not the biggest, it's the one that's most memorable.

Directors are not worried about casting beautiful women, but they are not sure that they want to cast great-looking men. My looks have prevented people from seeing my work objectively.

Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself. I don't put it on a platform. I don't campaign about it. It's just something that works for me. It enabled me to really connect with another human being - my wife, Sheryl - which I was never able to do before.

I'm thinking of how unexpected and yet oddly preordained life can be. Events are upon you in an instant, unforseen and without warning, and often times marked with disappointment and tragedy, but equally often leading to a better understanding of the bittersweet truth of life.

My first lessons in comedy, how to construct a joke, I learned from Eileen Brennan, who had unbelievable timing.

When I'm angry I'm an incredibly tough person, because I don't get angry easily.

Sam Seaborn is the best character that's ever been written for me, certainly. By far. And it's a timeless show [The West Wing], one that's having another resurgence now, with people so in an uproar politically.

I'll be a role model on my terms, but don't make a role model on your terms.

There's an argument that maybe [The Grinder] was better suited for streaming or cable. I don't know. I still like to think there's a place for smart, subversive, original comedies on networks.

I'll be sober ten years and married nine soon.

When I was a teen idol, I was so goddamn pretty I wouldn't have taken myself seriously.

You can meet people who are really beautiful. Then, when you see them angry for the first time, all of a sudden they're not beautiful anymore. They didn't just step into the other room and have plastic surgery; they're still the same physically. It's just that something inside of them has changed. They're no longer attractive.

I have been looking forward to this age of my life for a long time. In my twenties, I marked the days on the calendar - I was sick of playing high-school kids.

Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census.

I don't look back with any bitterness, though there are a couple of judgment calls and some '80s hairdos that I'd like to do over.

[Maggie Smith] brings new meaning to the phrase "doesn't suffer fools." She has just the most amazing, dry timing of anyone ever, I think. I think everyone's always known about it, but with her resurgence on Downton Abbey, a whole new generation has been introduced to it, which is just great.

I had to learn American sign language. And I did stuff in it, stuff that was just for me and was fun, that I don't think anyone would ever notice.

[Doctor Cukrowicz] was basically a role where you have two diva actresses - Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson - and my role was to say, "And then what happened? Tell me more." But I wanted to do it was because a) it was Tennessee Williams, a great writer, and b) it was Richard Eyre, an amazing director. And to work with those two amazing women!

When I was young and crazy, I was young and crazy. It can be hard enough just to BE in your teens and 20s. Then add fame, money, access, and every single person telling you that you're the greatest person who ever was, and it can be a recipe for disaster. Some people literally don't survive it.

I meet so many people. I want to be genuine and open with everyone, because when I was young and just starting out, I remember I was around people who were successful, and I thought that some were kind of cool or off-putting to their fans. It always really bothered me. So I think I may sometimes go too far out of my way.

I have, on the other hand, felt ill will from various people in the industry and the press.

I think that in today's world the right to privacy and freedom of the press are set on a collision course.

[J.F] Kennedy's own accent was inconsistent. So people are inconsistent. And it always kind of irks me when people talk about inconsistent accents, because people are imperfect by nature. So in the end, what you do is, you do an inhabitation and not an imitation.

At the time, The Hotel New Hampshire was John Irving's favorite adaptation of his work, which meant a lot to all of us who worked on that movie.It's amazing to me that that was a studio movie. That was a summer studio release! If that doesn't tell you how much the business has changed, nothing will.

I don't think you have to be perfect to be a role model.

Mostly people are interested in how somebody becomes an actor. And then, if they've had a couple of drinks, they want to know what Demi Moore's like or whatever. I mean, I don't mind people asking that at all, but when you've answered it five times...

People have a responsibility, especially with today's media, to read between the lines.

I wouldn't go back on my old days, though; everybody needs to have their wild years. It's just a question of when and I'd rather have had them early than be doing it as a mid-life crisis type thing.

I happen to be a movie star, but I'm not saying, "Hey, I'm a role model. Imitate me."

Actually, if I had to do it over [leaving the show the West Wing], I'd do the same thing, because lost in the shuffle of it is that Aaron [Sorkin] left the same year I did. And I would not have wanted to be on The West Wing with somebody else writing it.

In school, I had two or three best guy friends, but mostly if I was just hanging, I'd like to talk to the girls, because they were more interesting. I think they were smarter.

It was a role [Dean Sanderson] I hadn't seen before, and yet it was very accessible and relatable at the same time. I read scripts that have one or the other, but I rarely read scripts that have both. And it was laugh-out-loud funny.

I like the tradition of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances and how they react to events which force them to be heroic in a way that is not in their natures.

Allison Janney is the best actor on the series.Allison is one of the few actors I ever worked with who is incapable of hitting a false note.

I believe in ceremony. I think ceremony is important, pomp and circumstance, tradition. I'm into those things.

['John F. Kennedy] movie is based on a massive best-selling book, which is always helpful. And then the script was amazing and answered my question, "Why this? Why now?" And the "why now" is that it's 50 years since the assassination, and the country needs to have and will have a conversation about that. And the "why this" is the construct, which I think is sort of ingenious.

People should be allowed to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own home or their own hotel room.

Everybody is God. Everybody is the devil. And if you don't realize you have both parts, that's what really causes problems.

If people find me attractive, it would be for reasons that anybody finds anybody attractive. It's something that comes from within, and it manifests itself physically.

[Jodie Foster] is one of my favorite actors and people in the business.

I have had a lot of blessed, interesting things happen to me and have bumped up against some amazing people.

We shot every scene of mine in the entire movie in five days. All my coverage, everything. I left. They went back and shot everybody else around me. Insane. The part [Billie in Crazy Six] called for a handsome, coiffed cool guy romantic lead, and I showed up like you see him in the movie. And they let me do it.

There are so many family dinners you can do. I eventually had to go to them and say, 'Look, I don't do spatula work. I don't do scenes with oven mitts. If you're looking for that, you've got the wrong guy. I'm not doing scenes about casseroles. It's not happening.

Last night, we were all watching Harry Potter in bed, and I thought, 'This isn't something you have when you're single, that's for sure.'

If somebody else is achieving more than I am, that means I can do it, too. Everybody has the ability to raise themselves up, and my life has been marked by that.

When I had my Comedy Central roast, David [Spade] was my first choice to be roastmaster, because I adore him. He's funny as hell, and nobody is meaner.

David Mamet, Tim Kazurinsky, and Denise DeClue, who adapted [ About Last Night]. Between the three of them... I mean, it's always down to the writing. You're only as good as your writing.

Every relationship has its complications.

Show me someone who doesn't have some sort of experience that they would be uncomfortable for people to know about and I'll show you a dullard.

Can someone explain the vitriol whenever Ayn Rand comes up? 'Atlas' is the greatest motivator for the individual that I can imagine.

Anyone who's lived their life to the fullest extent has a scandal buried somewhere.

[Virginia Madsen] big part in that movie ['Class'] required her shirt to get ripped off, and looking back, it couldn't be a more egregious, vintage, lowbrow, 1980s Porky's-esque, shoehorned-in moment. Like, you would never have that moment in a movie that aspired to be what that movie did today.

I’ve never agreed with the conventional wisdom that ‘actors are great liars.’ If more people understood the acting process, the goals of good actors, the conventional wisdom would be ‘actors are terrible liars,’ because only bad actors lie on the job. The good ones hate fakery and avoid manufactured emotion at all costs. Any script is enough of a lie anyway. (What experience does any actor have with flying a spacecraft? Killing someone?) What’s called for, what actors are hired for, is to bring reality to the arbitrary.

You would not believe the amount of feedback I've gotten over people binge-watching The West Wing. Most of them have binge-watched it countless times.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't go out very much. When I do go out, a lot of times it'll be to something like a heavyweight fight, and I'll be photographed, so that people have this conception that I go out a lot.

As an actor, you deal in fantasy, imagination, and concentration. Those are your three weapons. Those are your bullets.

Intelligence is that aspect of human cognition that we haven't managed to emulate yet.

All the shows we did pre-airdate, and I'd come out - "Rob Lowe!" - and it was [Offers bored applause.] After the show aired? I came out - "Rob Lowe!" - and the place was, like, bedlam. And then the next week, they wouldn't let anyone under the age of 20 into the audience. And I'm going, "So that's how it works! Okay!"

Your interests change. I used to feel that if I spent evenings reading, or watching a film, or just doing nothing up here at the house, I would probably be missing something that was a lot more fun. I don't have that sense anymore.

For the only time in my career, I came in and met Tony [Richardson] for the part - I did not read, I just met with him - and in the middle of the meeting, he told me that I had the part [in The Hotel New Hampshire]. There was never, "Well, thank you, and we'll have my people call your people." There was none of that kabuki that goes on now endlessly for even the smallest role.

I love that movie [The Specials]. I love James Gunn. I always sort of suspected that he would do well for himself.

I have never felt at any point in my life, good or bad, any ill will ever from the man or woman on the street.

[Chris] Farley was a dear friend, and we remained close right up until the end. You know, there was nobody more fearless comedically than Chris. And that's saying a lot, because I'm friendly with a lot of funny people.

The West Wing and The Outsiders are the gifts that keep on giving.

The '80s were about trying to establish myself as an actor with a career. And being a teenager enjoying the fruits of being successful with lots of what I think is appropriate for that age.

Fake confidence on the outside often trumps truthful turmoil on the inside.

We always reminisce about how everyone tried to get Diane Lane's attention, to very little success.

[Tony Richardson ] just liked me, knew I was going to be what he wanted [in The Hotel New Hampshire], and that was the end of it. It was unbelievable.

There is no recovery for anyone without lifting the lid on the pain of the past and letting in the light.

Anything that is stifled will eventually ferment or explode.

I was sick of playing high-school kids. I liked being a teenager, but I would not go back for all the tea in China.

I think it was Alfred Hitchcock who said 90 percent of successful moviemaking is in the casting. The same is true in life. Who you are exposed to, who you choose to surround yourself with, is a unique variable in all of our experiences and it is hugely important in making us who we are. Seek out interesting characters, tough adversaries and strong mentors and your life can be rich, textured, highly entertaining and successful, like a Best Picture winner. Surround yourself with dullards, people of vanilla safety and unextraordinary ease, and you may find your life going straight to DVD.

To achieve longevity you will have cycles. No one gets there in one straight shot.

Be funny whenever possible, even if some people don't get it.

You show me a perfect person and I'll show you somebody who has lived a very closed life.

We all have a suspicion and hope that we've just been part of something special, something that may eventually change our lives. That no one else knows this makes it seem like we are living with a secret that we would like to share, but can't, sort of like having a superpower that's not come online or being president elect. For the moment, our lives proceed as usual, but within a month, we think, everything will change. It's a frustrating, if exciting, disconnect.

[On "John F. Kennedy" set] everybody was very interested in the accent. Even my collaborators were very curious to know if I was even going to do it. And I was, like, "You just can't not do it." I think everybody was worried that it was going to sound like the guy from... is it The Simpsons?

As far as my work for causes or social issues, that's something I'm doing as a private citizen.

[J.F.Kennedy] is an iconic figure. And to make it even worse, he's a hero of mine. And every actor will tell you that you can't play heroes. And you can't play villains. You can only play human beings.

There was a period in my life where I went out a lot and I had a really good time. But that period is over.

When I hear that I realize how quickly time passes and how everybody goes on their journeys and they're always unbelievable and they never go where you think they're going to take you and, quite frankly, it also makes me feel a little old.

When people consent to do something, they should be able to do whatever they want.

I have such amazing memories [about The Hotel New Hampshire movie], because Tony Richardson was such an amazing director, and the subject matter was so bizarre, and yet it was the most sought-after part at that moment. And then it had the good fortune to come out on the same day as Splash.

My looks have prevented people from seeing my work.

So I came to the realization: Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life.

I think my thing is that I try and pick up on things that other people have maybe not picked up on.

Of the many horrors of divorce, the most egregious is that it robs a kid of the best of both worlds. Dads can do many things that even the best moms can't, and vice versa.

Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life. To the extent that I had any inner turmoil, I had only myself to blame. I also thought of my two boys and what kind of example I hoped to be. I would always want them to take charge of their own futures and not be paralyzed by the comfort and certainty of the status quo or be cowed by the judgment of those on the outside looking in.

I am the guy dressing up in, you know, the caveman outfit for the kids birthday parties.

I also listened to hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of [J.F.] Kennedy, and I sort of built [ accent]. And then I got on set [of 'J.F.Kennedy' movie ] and forgot it.But that's what you want to do. You want it to just be real. And I think authenticity was better than - people always talk about when an accent doesn't work, and the phrase you always hear is, "It was inconsistent."

I can't help but be a little more gun-shy and wary about people.

Did you eat a lot of paint chips when you were a kid?

I have other obligations now - the show, my family, my life... though I know that without my sobriety I wouldn't have any of those things.

Ginnifer Goodwin said it very well - we're not doing the Hall Of Presidents at Disneyland. This is my interpretation of [J.F] Kennedy.

They (teenage boys)don’t really listen to speeches or talks. They absorb incrementally, through hours and hours of observation.

Adventure is important in life. Making memories matters. It doesn’t have to be a secret sea plane and an historic sports moment. But to have a great life, you need great memories. Grab any intriguing offer. Say yes to a challenge, and to the unknown. Be creative in adding drama and scope to your own life. Work at it, like a job. Money from effort comes and goes. But effort from imagination and following adventure creates stories that you keep forever. And anyone can do it.

My life is really based around my house and my friends and my family at the moment, and has been for a while now.

I really make a point of never worrying, or trying not to worry, about the way I'm perceived. You'll go crazy otherwise.

The umbrella that I live under is that you must be truthful with everyone except when to do so would injure them or others.

Chris [Farley] - I would consider him a comic animal. With the emphasis on "animal."

I think of myself as a human being first and foremost, and secondly as a person whose profession is acting. If people want to make that into something more or less, that's up to them.

People are human. There's such a premium today on being perfect. That's just not the way people are.

[Allison Janney] could memorize anything.She would memorize in the makeup trailer!

Any time an opportunity scares you that much, you should seriously consider saying yes.

Being pulled that long and that hard for a 12-hour day gave me migraines. It's what they used to do before there were facelifts for actresses – you know, Joan Crawford's whole career was this. Then the makeup is like Earl Scheib auto body paint sprayed on my face.

We knew we were doing something that would make an impact, because of Francis [Ford Coppola], but I don't think we were surprised by how well the movie [The Outsiders] did, but I think we would all say we were surprised at how well we all did coming out of it.

Stephen [King], who wrote the script himself, was on the set [of The Stand], and I was just so fortunate to get to know him. What a wonderful man. He may go down in history as the greatest American writer, pound for pound.

The media have such a strong hand in deciding what people's perceptions are. They decide what the agenda is going to be, what the issues are.

Read between the lines, folks, 'cause I'm here to tell you you're not getting the straight story. Ever. You're getting variations of the truth, if you're lucky.

There's this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can't be in pain or they can't have rough lives or be deep or interesting.

You can't believe everything you read. It's never been more true.