Patrick deWitt Quotes

I devoted myself to writing for years without representation or a promise of anything. And there were times when I felt quite down about my prospects.

My hunger and desperation, being an actor, an out of work actor - my memory of that is as fresh as an open wound.

My first ten years in Hollywood were really tough. I'd be coaching friends who came to me for acting advice, and then they'd make it before I did. I'd still be helping them while they were on movie sets and I had four lines on a TV show.

There never were any roles for my kind of acting. That's the story of my life.

My life as a professional musician is a joyless exercise in futility.

What a miserable thing life is: you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough.

My England captaincy was not the England captaincy I wanted, that's what will live with me for a long time.

At one time, I was persuaded to want to make music, and people answered me that that was not possible.

It's no fun to be a struggling young actor. It's a desperate thing, no way to be happy. If you have any alternative, you should take it.

I was 19 years old, pumping gas and going nowhere. I was kind of a high school dropout at that point because I had left school to play hockey, but no one drafted me.

There were times when I was working three jobs at one time, and I was still auditioning just to make ends meet, and I was hoping that something was going to come through. Especially after you have two degrees, standing solid through the process is sometimes the hardest part because there is no guarantee.

When I graduated college I had a series of just humiliating jobs that I couldn't believe I was at.

After hundreds of auditions and nothing, you're sitting home and wondering, 'What am I doing?'

I am disappointed when I don't win, because I want to believe I can win on every horse I ride, which is a ridiculous thing to think. Even if I'm on a horse that I have woken up thinking has no chance, by the time I've reached the course, I'll have convinced myself that it can win and will be disappointed if it doesn't.

I've got actor friends who didn't get breaks, who struggle and worry about things that I'm fortunate not to have to worry about.

I got involved in music because I love everything about it, but now I'm in it you see the other side and it isn't much fun. Not as glamorous and enjoyable as you imagine.

Films are tricky because for years you're getting told you're about to make it and you're about to be busy for four or six months or you're about to be on tour for press. But these things tend not to happen, and meanwhile you've said 'no' to many things 'cause you thought you were going to be busy, for years, for years this happens.

As I'm always fond of telling hosts at the Oscars who are doing it for their first time, for everybody who wins, there are four people who don't. As the evening wears on, the room fills up with losers, and then they are bitter.

I was bartending for a long time and going on auditions and was constantly being rebuffed.

For me, the path of failure exceeded by far the joys of success. My plight was hopeless.

It is bitter to think of one's best years disappearing in this unpolished country.

I intended to be famous by the time I was 16 and rich by the time I was 20. Curiously, it didn't pan out!

I've been telling people 'I'm going to go to California, and I'm going to be a big star' since the womb, but lately it was immediately followed by, 'Would you like soup or salad with that?'

From the time I was 16 to really up until turning 21, the roles were really, really few and far between. I had people say that I just wasn't a good singer. They didn't know what to do with me; I would never fit in any markets. I almost quit acting altogether.

Everyone - particularly my female friends I speak to - all say 'I wouldn't be in my twenties again if I was paid.' It's a difficult time.