Steve Martin Quotes

I think one of the most difficult challenges in show business is the challenge of longevity and to constantly realize and reveal what's already been there - like doing stage and singing and dancing in New York. I haven't been that far out of my comfort zone in a while.

I definitely want to do other things outside of acting like producing, directing.

I think I made some mistakes, in different areas, but it's great to be working in a show again now, many years down the track. I have worked in many other different shows in Australia and I've been able to learn from my mistakes. I'm lucky that I made those mistakes early on in Australia, and I definitely won't make them again in the States, but you've got to learn that stuff.

I've had several moments in my career where it seemed like I might not age out of the bracket the world wants to put you in. It's hard to keep growing up inside the performing arts. It's very difficult, and presents a lot of unique challenges.

It's a lot of work to put a brand-new monologue and a brand-new show on the air and find comedy every single day. It's challenging and it's the hardest thing I have ever done, but it's the best-suited thing for me. The more relaxed I get and the more confident I feel, the more I get to play and be myself...

I just wanted to be a good comic and had no sense of show business, but at some point you want the opportunity to write a show about your life.

I think my TV show is gonna be my big thing, so I'm pretty focused on that, and I think doing that will lead to all of the other opportunities I want, to jump to movies and other stuff, but it starts with that.

I don't always want to do Cher. I've been doing Cher for 25 years.

There were a lot of challenges I had to face on 'American Idol' that helped me grow in a few different ways that I'll take forever with my career.

I came to Chelsea to work, to keep learning and to keep improving.

I went to L.A. to become an actress, and I started from the ground up. I worked as an extra, and then I started taking this joke-writing class because it was free. I didn't want to be a comedian, but I was like, 'Free education? Yeah, I'll take a class.'

I always found new challenges in my career.

When you're faced with challenges in any industry, but especially the music industry, it tests you in a lot of ways, both personally and professionally.

In what other business can a guy my age drink martinis, smoke cigars and sing? I think all people who retire ought to go into show business. I've been retired all my life.

One of the greatest pleasures of working on shows is that I enjoy watching the actors - who are all younger than me now - and their careers. I love seeing how they're doing and seeing them getting good gigs and doing well.

What's important for me is to give my daughters a well-rounded education and a mixture of people in their lives. They'll make their own choices. I think they would be good in show business.

I feel like I'm a showbiz professional. This is my job, it's going to have ups and downs. I'm lucky to be able to do this for a living, but I also do feel like I don't anticipate changing the world. All I can really do is do a good job when I'm hired to do a job, and be happy at home.

Once I got a job singing and dancing, a reasonable person might think, "Maybe I should learn how to do this." But no, I never did.

I don't know if the idea of a career in show business or in the arts in general was looked down upon as much as by baby boomers as it was by their parents.

Me being able to be acting and doing other things has opened me as an artist, and I think even more from a visual standpoint.

I think that new artistic challenges help you grow both as a person, as an artist, and then they feed back into your other work, and tend to magnify it.

Sometimes, to ensure that a talented individual will work for you, or will stay working with you, you need to be flexible. Money is not always the great motivator here. Talented people want a good salary, of course, but surprisingly often they are more attracted to new opportunities and challenges.

I have a career now, and I have to say, five years ago I didn't. I'm 50, and you never know what works, but I think part of that is because - in this way that can't be defined but which can be examined - we cannot work alone.

Music has always been something I wanted to do. I think just the idea of performing and entertaining and being in the studio is really what I wanted to know how that felt. I started to get into it around the same time I got into acting, but it turned into a side project because my movies were taking up most of my time.

For the most part, comedy is the only fair part of show business.