Jim Parsons Quotes

I still do commercial work as an actor, which I love, because it's very quick, and it definitely pays my bills.

I'd been in Hollywood for five years before I started writing 'The Guild.' I worked enough to pay all my bills. So I was very lucky in that respect. Most people don't make a living acting.

You know, when you choose to make your living as an actor, it's all fine and good to look at it as some kind of artistic endeavor. At its best, it is that. But the fact is, most of the actors out there don't earn $3 million a picture and can't afford to take two years off between films and look for the right thing. Most of us are tradesmen.

I mean, I did plays in high school, but I was convinced you couldn't make a living doing it.

I didn't believe that I'd ever be lucky enough to be able to make a living as an actor.

The great thing about being on a television show is that it usually provides you with fairly steady income so you can go and do things.

My life is one that I've aimed for - I've always wanted to be an actor who worked in film and television and was able to provide for himself and his family.

I've always considered myself an actor, but I wasn't making a living as an actor.

The primary purpose of organized society is to enable everybody to get a living.

Everybody in America must have a sense that he can get a job and a have a decent standard of living.

I hung around New York and did a little stock-company stuff. I wasn't really sure at that time if I even wanted to be an actor. I got no encouragement.

I'd like to be a steadily working actor and to do as many things as possible. I'm really enjoying the life.

For an actor to go to work every day is an extreme blessing.

Being an actor is fantastic because you get to live your dreams and all of that, but I always think it's slightly irritating when you hear from the outside world, and people are like, 'Yeah, well, if I was an actor, and all I had to do was look good, I could be that ripped, too.'

It's nice to predict your schedule, especially with a child. It's nice to have work and be in a stable place, which isn't always easy for actors.

I never wanted to be one of those desperate actors, just waiting for their next gig, who might have to take something that they didn't want to do to pay the rent.

It's really hard to make a living as an actor. I'm grateful as I drive to work every morning.

Once you start getting big roles as an actor, everything pays. So what are you making decisions on? It's about the director or the script or whatever. But before you reach that point, you're taking jobs with, say, a theater company, in spite of the fact that it's not paying your bills.

'ER' was an all-consuming universe, but I don't have a single regret. It gave me some of the greatest friendships I have and afforded me one of the rarest commodities in an actor's life, which is the financial security to pick and choose jobs for factors besides the paycheck.

It's funny - sometimes people think we, as actors, have this wide range of choices of the roles we're doing, and in a lot of ways, when you're a younger actor, or just if you want to make a living in the business, you take your opportunities where they come.

One of my aims was to be paid as well as a plumber. Plumber was better-paid than any performance artist who was always doing this for free. It is so important to make a good living from art. You know, John Cage, until he was 60, he couldn't pay electricity.

My father has been an actor since 1964. Things were tight a lot of the times, financially. It wasn't like a big romantic adventure.

Listen, when you're starting out you're trying to be as creative as possible about how you can use your skills as an actor to make money.

Good shows have to get made in the first place... The regular ones don't excite me as an actor but at the end of the day, I have to work to earn my bread and butter.

I'll just put it this way: I've struggled enough as a working actor - and, most of the times, a not working actor - to know that anytime you are working is a blessing.