Dennis Hopper Quotes

My acting chops are awful.

The first time I thought I should be an actor was in school. I thought, 'At least this is something for which I won't have to study.' But I've realised that an actor needs to be constantly unsure about what he's doing and about what's going on around him. The moment you think you've nailed it, you're dead.

To be honest, I don't know really what I do on stage.

I'm comfortable in front of the camera, but I can't act.

I don't watch my playbacks because I hate to see myself act.

If you want proof that 'Catfish' was real, just put me in an audition room and watch me fall apart. I can't pretend. I'm really bad at it. That's partly what makes me good at hosting a reality show.

When I do things that aren't very good, I'm worse as an actor. I don't know what I pick up - but it's something not very nice.

I enjoy acting. It's not that I begin to think I'm getting better. I now fully know that I've made no improvement whatsoever since I was 20. I can live with it.

TV is wild. You just play the role you're given, and you show up and do the best that you can.

I'm not a natural-born actor. So it's been a very slow learning curve for me.

Playing characters I don't relate to are a big challenge for me.

In television or a movie I bring my own ego and consequently can mess up. In the theatre I learnt very quickly to shut up and listen. Now I am able to get out of my own way.

Football is my job, not my life, but it's a job I'm going to give my all for as long as I'm in it.

It's a very hard line to walk, and I certainly am nowhere near having cracked how to do that, but I try to focus on being a brave performer and not worrying about my lighting or whatever, even though, then, sometimes I see myself on screen, and I'm like, "Why did you wear that, look like that, whatever," but I'm also more accepting that is what it is. There's this battle always.

You can criticize yourself to a point to do something better, or you criticize yourself to a point where you inhibit yourself.

Just do your job. Get in early. Stay late, and don’t complain. Fight the big fights.

I don't care about people kissing my ass or telling me how great I am. I don't really give a damn. I read the bad stuff a whole lot more than I read the good stuff. I read that because there are always going to be critics who are going to say how good you aren't.

Be your own worst critic. When things go wrong it's tempting to shift the blame. Don't. Accept responsibility. People will appreciate it, and you will find out what you're capable of.

The more I focused on my need to get better the worse I actually got - the more neurotic and self-conscious and self-absorbed I became.

I never took the work less than serious, my work ethic is ingrained in me. But I've always had a sense of humor about myself.

Sometimes I'll watch an old movie on television and, once in a while, one of mine, such as April Showers, will come on and I'll watch it. And you know something? I'm always amazed at what a lousy actress I was. I guess in the old days we just got by on glamour.

The one thing I cannot stand is when I do interviews, when I interview people, and I listen to the tapes and I hear myself talking and sort of stumble and stammer, or I hear the horrible sound of my own voice, or God forbid I see myself on video, there is that complete revulsion with seeing how I occur in the world.

I have sometimes, probably, forgotten - and I know I have - to pat the back of someone or said thank you enough times or maybe even once sometimes I wish I were perfect. I wish I were just the nicest, nicest, nicest person on Earth. But I am a business person.If I were a man no one would ever say that I was arrogant.

It doesn't matter to me what place I get traded to. If I was traded someplace - I'd play anywhere.

In stand up, you get an awareness of how you come across, but in acting there is almost a hyper-awareness on how you might be physically perceived.