Joe Swanberg Quotes

I know a lot of times you don't even get the opportunity to audition for people you really want to work with because there is a business angle involved.

I myself was completely torn by the decision to start Teach For America. There was a voice in my head telling me not to do it - to take a more normal path. I did have one thing going for me, which was that I had been rejected from all the other jobs I'd applied to.

If I'm sure of a person and his potential in politics, and if I know he will live up to his promises, I wouldn't mind campaigning for him. I believe in the dictum, 'never say never.' You never know, I might end up joining politics.

I've never been a planner. I didn't know I was going to run for the State House. I didn't know I was going to run for governor. I don't know what's next, and I love not thinking about it because the doors open at a certain time.

I think I felt compelled in a way because if I hadn't written the part, I never would have been offered the part. There are at least 10 guys who would have been offered the part before me.

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

I feel, having the choices I had, I felt I had more control over my own medium than I did over photography.

Luckily, I have great agents who are sending me out for great stuff.

Careers are what they are, they don't make any sense at all when you look back. We're not in charge of them.

I try not to and I don't think I ever have just jumped at any opportunity because a company wanted me. Just because there was money on the table doesn't mean that I took it.

I am happy with my family and my colleagues and want to continue making my own kind of cinema. I have never belonged to any camp and have no friends in the industry. Most of them will pay lip service, but when it comes to doing, they tend to shy away.

I didn't really chart things out, career-wise.

I've come to realize your career is all about the choices you make. Every single one matters.

I've never taken the steps to be 'successful': I've never had a manager or signed to a publishing house.

I couldn't tell you what I am going to do next 'cause I have no idea, but I am open to anything.

I just kind of feel like it's my choice to do what I want to do. And my agent, he's totally with it. He tells me, 'You can turn down any audition you don't want to.'

Other acting opportunities had come along, but nothing that was tantalizing enough to me to step away from what I found most interesting.

There are a couple of projects that are sort of on the plate; I haven't closed any of them yet. I'm trying to figure out which one is going to be the best one for me.

I've never understood why you would turn down a great role.

I have to do what I have to do, and you have to go where the opportunities are.

It's the nature of the freelancer: you never know where you're going to be. You get great opportunities, and you miss great opportunities all the time.

Early on, you don't have the luxury of a lot of choices. Sometimes you're forced to do things that will advance your career and not necessarily things that fulfill you artistically, but I've been fortunate to do a lot of both.

I think a lot of actors, maybe who have been on a hit show and been lucky enough to get successful, might say 'no' more than I do. And maybe that's good, maybe that's smart. I don't know.

Your choices are very important. The only thing you have as actors are your choices: the option to say no to something. You don't want to take on a really bad job and be terrible in something - especially in film, because if you're bad in it, you're bad in it forever.

I have never been choosy throughout my career.