Paul Kurtz Quotes

I love playing different characters and things that are challenging. I'm not interested in safety at all. That's what makes me get up in the morning.

The coolest things in life are things that you have not done before. That's the key to life: new things always.

What I enjoy most is doing something I've never done before.

I'm scared of horses, and I don't know how to shoot them, but that's what excites me. After 40 years old, if you don't do some things that really terrify you, I don't think they're worth doing.

I want to be scared. I want to keep taking insane risks. I want to be scared because you're going to grow through that whether you want to or not. I don't want to play the same guy. I want to keep throwing curveballs to you guys and keep telling stories.

You'll never be disappointed if you always keep an eye on uncharted territory, where you'll be challenged and growing and having fun.

After doing so many different roles, if you don't stretch yourself, there's no excitement left.

A lot of people ask me, 'What is your goal now that you have done everything?' And I always say that my goal is to not be bored by what I do. The only way that I cannot be bored by what I do is if I play something and it's all new to me.

My films are so new and unique that I don't know where I will end up. Fear keeps me alert. And it's also a part of an excitement.

I love what I do. I love the invigoration of doing things I haven't done before.

Part of the criteria for doing a project is that it's scary or challenging because at some point you go, 'It's too scary; it's too challenging. I don't want to do it.' But things that seem easy are never any fun.

I constantly need something new and challenging.

I've always been quite careful about what I wanted to do. I've just never wanted to revisit old ground or do something that's easy. I want to do something that I would look at and go, "I don't know what to do!" The most exciting thing is when you're a bit scared, so I'm looking to find something that's really terrifying.

Make your life exciting. Do what you have to do as long as you don't hurt people.

A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.

Whenever you do what you really love, your heart lifts, your mind opens, and everything changes. You wake up. That's what true adventure really is.

Damn everything but the circus! ...damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won't get into the circle, that won't enjoy. That won't throw it's heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence.

I learned early that the richness of life is found in adventure. Adventure calls on all the faculties of mind and spirit. It develops self-reliance and independence. Life then teems with excitement. But man is not ready for adventure unless he is rid of fear. For fear confines him and limits his scope. He stays tethered by strings of doubt and indecision and has only a small and narrow world to explore.

You have to keep your eyes and heart open - there are always new things to discover, new problems to solve.

Great artists make the roads; good teachers and good companions can point them out. But there ain't no free rides, baby. No hitchhiking. And if you want to strike out in any new direction — you go alone. With a machete in your hand and the fear of God in your heart.

Doing something new and challenging. It can be anything from starting a business to playing a sport. Seeing a great concert, looking at extraordinary art, or being in nature. More than anything, it's my son's smile and love that makes me light up!

Hovering near panic, trying to focus but finding it hard to open my eyes. My heart was pounding. I couldn’t get enough air, and I couldn’t find the desire to push her away

[My work] just develops and develops, and I'm very nicely served by the universe: just as I'm ready to take the conversation further with myself, some other individual pops up, like David McKenzie did, with this idea of making this film [Teknolust], and provides exactly the leap to the next adventure.

Then it was intoxicating. The smooth takeoff, and the free feeling of having the world drop away. Soon after leaving the ground, they were crossing patches of stratus that lay in the valleys as heavy and white as glaciers. North for the first time. It was still an adventure, as exciting as love, as frightening.

The laws that keep us safe, these same laws condemn us to boredom.