James Spader Quotes

I do enjoy acting, but it is such a game. So for that reason, I don't think I'll ever leave London.

I love to read scripts. But I am very happy right now to say that I am a working actor. In this town of Los Angeles, the phrase 'I'm an actor' is overrated. So, I like to say, 'I'm a working actor.'

At the end of the day, if you are an actor, you definitely know that you're just work-for-hire.

My father calls acting 'a state of permanent retirement with short spurts of work.'

I really think that everybody would like to be an actor. Why wouldn't they? It's great work if you can get it. The one thing that prevents most people from saying, 'I'm just gonna go to Hollywood!' is that it seems unrealistic.

If I only did theatre I would have had to waitress, and I didn't want to waitress.

Actors are crazy or we wouldn't be doing this.

Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.

Great film roles, they always take you to another place. I'd love to do more of that, but I keep doing lots of voiceovers, some TV spots, and some film roles have come along, so I'm okay.

I could do John Wayne, Jack Benny, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and entertain my friends. But I never seriously considered it as a career choice.

I used to think no one should go into show biz, but now I feel differently. I now feel like it's a great career. If you can do it and make money at it and still not be so famous that you can have a normal life - then I think it's a great career.

My father and I used to tussle about me becoming an actor. He's from strong, Presbyterian Scottish working-class stock, and he used to sit me down and say, 'You know, 99 percent of actors are out of work. You've been educated, so why do you want to spend your life pretending to be someone else when you could be your own man?'

There was a time when it would be a great scandal if you announced you were going to be an actor.

The truth in acting is that we are all hired help. We are a commodity. There is no difference between being an actor and pork bellies.

Between New York and L.A., and all of us who are actors, I feel like we're just one big, cast repertory company, all running back and forth between the coasts and between different shows. There is a wealth of great character actors, who show up, here and there, on different shows. I love the fact that we're allowed to do that.

I think as working actors, it's like sales. You're only as good as your last sale, so you put your all into something and you just hope that from that you can get your next job.

But I think the children of actors share a certain pragmatic approach. One is denied some of that 'running away with the circus' element of being an actor.

This whole celebrity racket, it's not really my bag. I don't really do that stuff, and I am not looking to get famous myself. I would love it if my characters get famous, my work was well known and appreciated. But I'm an actor, not a spokes model or a celebrity or whatever that is. I don't know how to be that.

One of the great things about my job is I get to do all of these things that I may not experience had I not been an actor.

I love acting, but don't necessarily enjoy other aspects of the business. For me, going to celebrity parties is like work.

If you work in casting, it's sort of not cool to want to act. A lot of people think that casting directors are frustrated actors, but it wasn't true with any of the casting people I knew.

Acting is the most wildly overpaid position imaginable.

One of the great things about being an actor is it serves a short attention span, which is something I have.

What career? A man's got a body of film of about four movies in about 10 years or something. I do it because I think I can do a good job of something and I'll enjoy it, do it, and sort of vanish. I don't want to be an actor for hire.

I don't mean to sound - I don't want it to come out funny, but I don't like show business. I love - I love acting in films. I love it.