Sam Mendes Quotes

America is big enough to admit when it's wrong and confident enough to learn from its mistakes.

The more I act, the harder it gets, since I feel like I still have so much to learn. Whenever I embark on a new project, it always feels like the first time. If it were easy to me and I felt like I knew everything, my acting might have been different. I think the feeling of 'newness' keeps me on my toes and concentrated.

I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

I have never, ever been embarrassed by saying, 'I don't know.' I think maybe that's part of that longevity of my career. Sometimes I have to say, 'I don't know but I'll find out. Call me next week.'

I have no ambitions to act, because I don't know how to.

I built a career out of knowing what I don't know.

I don't think you can understand everything that goes into being a superstar because even I don't understand everything. I think we're all learning as we go.

I feel like I'm not the greatest general manager in the history of general managers, but I do OK, and I'm learning as I go. I try to just do my best with it.

Some forty years of experience in my field as a scholar and as a teacher have given me great confidence mixed with greater humility.

It's nothing to be ashamed of. There comes a time in everything when you don't know something.

The balance between confidence and humility is best learned through extensive experience and mistakes.

I learn lessons with every interview I give.

On paper, actors are the dumbest group of individuals essentially out there. Most of us have not gone to college. However, we never stop learning. Because of what we do, we're constantly researching, constantly learning.

I prefer to be flippant about acting, just in case I'm rubbish.

Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be often.

The directors you trust the most are the ones, when you ask them a question, they've got the guts to say, 'I don't know.'

I think actors get too comfortable. I like being uncomfortable as an actor because it keeps you alive. I don't know, I think it's important.

You don't have to have all the answers all the time. But the best thing to know is what you don't know.

Drama is something I'm good at, I guess.

I question myself every day. That's what I still find motivating about this. I don't have the answers, I don't pretend that I do just because I won the match. Just keep fighting and maybe something good happens.

As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

Directors who turn into big babies and shut out criticism stop learning.

I don't mind being wrong, and I don't mind changing my mind.

To me, one of the things I love about being an actor is that it's never done; it's never perfect, and so it's the process. It's like practicing being okay with things not being perfect and things being outside of your control.

There's no blueprint for where I should be. I see myself as a young, good actor who still has a lot to learn. There's nobody at any point in their career who is the finished article.