Jay Ellis Quotes

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

I'm a complete human being. I'm very emotional and loving. I feel, I hurt, I give, I take, and also I think. I analyze. I'm a sociologist, anthropologist.

Psychology and acting are very closely linked. It's just about studying people and how they work. It can be an incredible discipline and exercise.

The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them fully developed in someone else.

The joy of my heart is to 'study men, their manners, and their ways,' and for this darling object I cheerfully sacrifice every other consideration.

I really do love psychology and philosophy but I'm no professional at these things. Because I love seeing the true side of humanity, as I've continued that, I have ultimately lent towards philosophy and psychology but it is not something in which I try to study.

The one thing I've tried to do is be insightful.

I'm very inquisitive. I love hanging around people who can teach me. I ask a lot of questions. And I'm very introspective and self-critical.

I think acting has made me very in tune with human behavior and myself as well.

I think that being perceptive and having interests is nothing but an asset.

And I like asking questions, to keep learning; people with big egos might not want to look unsure.

'What am I missing?' is a much more important question than 'How cool am I?'

I suppose I have very undesirable traits. I am very critical, which is very undesirable. But it is good from a business point of view.

I think almost everything in life is life-experience, personality-driven.

I love life. I'm fascinated by human behavior because that feeds back into my work.

There are certain things that can be asked that get me excited. It's never a thing where I think I'm too good, I'm just the type of person who likes to be enlightened. I don't like to go through the motions.

I try to learn on each project, try to really feel what the characters are feeling.

A man's character never changes radically from youth to old age. What happens is that circumstances bring out characteristics which have not been obvious to the superficial observer.

Exposing characters and their shortcomings gives me great comfort. It's always great to write about someone more mixed up than yourself.

Also, the more you're not focused on showbiz and instead focused on life, learning about other people, and keeping your eyes open and trying to be aware of the world.

I became a better listener than I ever had been as a result of playing Jean Luc Picard because it was one of the things that he does terrifically well.

Testing of self is a regular part of our own lives, so it seems natural to make it a part of the lives of my characters, as well, albeit on a much different level.

When characters change on screen, it makes you feel better about yourself. You think, 'Oh I change too, I'm constantly becoming a better person.'

I think about and study people. I think I make people uneasy sometimes by being so curious as to why they do what they do. I find myself thinking about this fairly obsessively, and I can't stop until I've found an answer.

Someone once told me be interested, not interesting - that really clicked for me.