Career Pragmatism Quotes

Acting wasn't some long-held dream, and it still isn't, really. I'm just trying to make some money and pay the bills.

I've done millions of mediocre movies. I've done way more than my fair share. You do what you gotta do. This is not heart surgery. I'm not curing cancer. I'm just trying to put my kids through school.

School was just kind of something where it was like, 'Um, I guess I should get my bachelor's.' My mind is always geared towards the practical.

I tried to play anything people would hire me to play, because I was a musician.

You can't be rolling into town with stars in your eyes. A lot of people get to Nashville and immediately start selling themselves: 'Let's go to lunch and talk about the business!' Then you realize everyone is talented here.

As physics students, we are taught that physicists are smart, that chemists are moderately acceptable, and that biologists are certainly not very intelligent. So I wasn't inclined to take a biology course. But my father insisted, and maybe what he had in mind was that, if there were no jobs in physics, I would end up being a doctor.

First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.

I played baseball because I could make more money doing that than I could doing anything else.

Yes, I would loved to have just sustained myself through my art, but less than one in a billion musicians gets that life. So rather than being like, 'I'm an exception!', like a moron, I thought I'd get a real job.

I'm realistic. And realistically, I'm not that type of player that earns that type of money any more. So I'd be willing to take a little cut to get a couple of extra years.

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.

My mother and father come from that post-Depression, middle-of-World-War -I kind of thinking that says, 'Find a practical job. You know what I mean, Mr. Big Shot? So, you can sing a song ...'

But I think the children of actors share a certain pragmatic approach. One is denied some of that 'running away with the circus' element of being an actor.

I don't believe in that kind of pragmatic career ladder stuff.

I'm not too picky. I'm not waiting, sitting around for the ideal and perfect role. I like to work, so I try to make the best of whatever opportunity comes up.

First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.

I never turned a part down when they offered me money.

I don't really have the desire, as far as love of the game. It's more about the paycheck I can make.

In the India I was growing up in, history wasn't really a wise career option. People would joke and say, 'History's okay, but what's your actual job?' I didn't come from a privileged background and couldn't afford to be irresponsible, so I did the pragmatic thing and did a MBA.

As a youngster, I had friends who became lawyers and doctors, and I was as idealistic as anybody. When I was in the Army, I read a book by Adlai Stevenson. He said law was as noble as saving a person's life. So at one point, I felt that way, too. But after a while, I said, 'Let me just finish the degree. I'm getting the G.I. Bill.'

Television allows for survival, which is the basic issue for me. You have to decide how much money is enough. You can't get carried away with the hunt for money. But there are times it shows up, and you need to grab it, and that allows you to hunt for a better script.

I'm a journeyman actor. My experience as a journeyman actor is that you have to go where the work is. I've never been the lead; I've never been in that position.

I've always learned in show business: you take the job.

I believe in making all movies at their most reasonable. That I get a lot of money as an actor is because nobody else will get it if I don't.

I do not make decisions based on emotion, because it is my career and I would like to be more practical when it comes to career.