Michael Keaton Quotes
Actor
In the household in which I was raised, the themes were pretty simple. 'Work hard. Don't quit. Be appreciative, be thankful, be grateful, be respectful. Also, never whine, never complain. And always, for crying out loud, keep a sense of humor.'
I've changed my diet a few times. Now I'm trying to eat more protein. I eat little meals throughout the day. I love food, so I still give myself great meals. Also, when I'm busy, it's easy to lose weight.
I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, in a really rundown old house. I'd stay out till 8:30, 9:00 at night. Just blow in. My mom and dad never really cared much. It was okay. We were pretty free to roam. I mean, I had no concept of stopping play. It just didn't occur to anyone.
Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport.
I don't know - sometimes I catch myself being dark, and it's annoying. I think, 'Get over it.' I bore myself. But sometimes, like everybody, I'm sure I am obsessive.
Guys never really get over their toys.
I played a lot of sports when I was a kid so I get in that ballgame mindset of being really, really respectful, but at same time saying to yourself, 'Don't back down a single inch, hang with these guys if you can.' If they throw it high and tight you have to stand in there, you can't take yourself out of that moment.
I liked going to Catholic school.
There comes a point in your life when you realize how quickly time goes by, and how quickly it has gone. Then it really speeds up exponentially. With that, I think you start to put a lot of things into context; you start to see how huge the world is, and really, the universe.
To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.
Generally, I move in the direction of art.
I'll always stand by the first 'Batman'. Even for its imperfections, people will never know how hard that movie was to do. A lot of that still holds up.
I read that John Hughes script for 'Mr. Mom,' and I thought, 'This guy is a funny writer.' I went: 'You ought to stick around and direct this thing.' But he didn't; he left, and look what he became. A really legendary comedy director.
I was so gullible as a kid.
It's great to make your own choices, but there's a price to pay. I could've made more money or been more famous. I could be the current groovy guy.
David Letterman used to say, 'I wasn't the class clown, but I wrote for him,' and that's exactly it. You want to be known to be funny without having it pointed out.
High energy creates more energy, more energy, more energy. It kicks off synapses, I guess. It opens up your brain and you think of one thing after another thing, after another. You can really open yourself up comedically, which is fun.
To make extra money, my parents would sell eggs and chickens. I was very little. I remember a chicken's head being chopped off with the chicken running around. I wasn't sure if my imagination was running away with me or if it really happened. It really happened.
From an art perspective, I don't know how you get better than 'Beetlejuice.' In terms of originality and a look, it's 100% unique.
In high school, I was too shy to perform. It's one thing to get laughs from your family, to be funny at parties and in class. It's another thing to get up on the stage.
I don't want dogs that have had the personality trained out of them. It's a partnership. I want to connect.
I can't sleep the first night in a hotel room.
For years, I'd go to the movies and see guys doing Boston accents and think, 'Oh please, God, I hope I never have to do that.'
If you look at what I do, there's no consistency. The consistency is that there is no consistency. I do projects that are good and not so good.
I never knew anyone who was cloned, but I played one in 'Multiplicity.'
I choose not to be at the whim of others. I want to be at my own whim.
I'm the seventh child of George and Leona Douglas, and I don't ever remember a time when my father didn't work two jobs. When my mother was going to the grocery, or going to Mass, or trying to take care of seven kids in a run-down farmhouse.
I saw 'Wild,' and I thought, 'Wow, this is a lot of things, but one of the things is it's a therapist's dream and a climate-change denier's nightmare.'
I'm envious of writers and musicians. I think it must be so difficult. Not just the frustration, but the discipline.
If you're a dope like me, you get every sports channel you can get. I'm watching, you know, Netherlands soccer.
Unpredictability means what it means. I don't know how you define it. It is what it is.
I was an altar boy, which I loved and am very proud of. It was strict, but also really nice.
I was a really involved dad - not because I'm such a wonderful person. I like being a dad.
I get kinda self-conscious. I don't want to know about my eyebrows. I'm born with them.
I always thought what made 'Beetlejuice' look so great was because it looked like some genius kid made it in his basement.
I don't think there's anybody better than Leonardo DiCaprio, and I've been saying that since before anyone knew who he was.
I really like to hear actors talk about acting, but I don't really like hearing myself talk.
Anesthesia is quite remarkable. It's lost time. And you wake up kind of refreshed.
There is the theory... that you live in two places: You either live in fear, or you live in love.
In terms of the parallels, I've never related less to a character than Riggan.
I always knew the way in was Bruce Wayne. It wasn't Batman. It was never Batman. That was the key.
In our family, my brothers and I shared toys. In other words, just because it was mine didn't mean my brothers and I didn't play with it.
I've proven I'm courageous. I'm gutsier than anybody; I've got a better imagination than anybody; I'm essentially more creative than any other actor I know, and I've proven I take risks. I don't think I need to prove anything to myself any more.
I still really like newspapers. I'm gonna feel really sad when they go. Or not - maybe I'll be dead.
One thing my mother had a nose for was inauthenticity.
I was never a huge 007 fan, but I sure liked Sean Connery. I'm sure Pierce Brosnan is good and has his moments, but I've not seen him; I've only seen bits and pieces on TV, so I can't really judge. Pierce looks very natural in the role.
There are very few jobs where you're held up to public scrutiny.
My work is distinct and definitive and specific, and hopefully it is so that every single character is different, and they are - but there's probably an underlying element that's me.
I went through a lazy period.
I've got six wonderful brothers and sisters.
I'm just shocked at how blatantly shallow people are sometimes.
I've got a statue of St. Francis in my front yard, and I'm not even a practicing Catholic.
There's this thin line between knowing something is going to be really hard and saying, 'Yeah, you know, but I still gotta see if I can pull it off.'
I liked 'Robocop' because of the director, and it was an intelligent, big-action studio movie.
I worked at a PBS station called WQED in Pittsburgh.
I really believed that Batman had the potential to be one of the coolest guys in cinema.
My first day in grade school, I was plain scared. I left the comfort of my run-down house, which I loved, and went to school where it was cold, it smelled, the lighting was bad.
Show business is, essentially, a fear-based industry.
I'm in a business that invites narcissism, self-involvement, and egos being blown out of proportion.
Actors will say 'yes' to anything.
Day to day and doing the work and getting to that honest point - that, for me, is always about - and always will be as long as I do this - refining and refining and refining and refining the truth... constantly being as truthful and honest and raw and real as you can be.
If I didn't do 'Batman,' 'Birdman' wouldn't have happened.
When I was in improv workshops or doing stand-up or writing comedy with others, or just doing comedy, I just laughed. Funny was funny; I loved to laugh. I always liked people I found generally funny.
I find there are a few places where I like to meditate more than in other places. There's a little Catholic church that I go to, and there's another temple I go to - there are certain places where I just feel more comfortable.
Westerns were always my favorite things when I was little. And it always bothered me when cowboys were too clean in movies, or when they wore their guns like they had an outfit on. It always worked better when a guy looked sweaty and smelly; I hadda believe, I hadda believe that.
We had four guys in the family, so somebody was always hitting somebody or chasing somebody or getting mad or fighting or wrestling - that was just what you did. So when you're the youngest, it's good for you. You figure out real early how to get out of headlocks and holds.
Anyone can be a celebrity now; this is not a big deal anymore.
I like people-people rather than movie people.
Unless you're flat out dead, you have to think of some other questions like: what's on the other side? It brings up issues of God, or no God. How does he play into this? Or he, or she, or it? How does it all play into this?
I used to say no to almost everything because I thought, 'I've got enough dough, I know what I want to do, and I know what I'm capable of.'
There are times when I consciously give the character something physical - a walk, the way he sits, how he talks, or his lack of physicality, which is like a physicality.
Have I ever been to a party with a ton of famous people in it? Yes, several times, so I guess that's a Hollywood lifestyle.
I saw some Pixar movies like 'The Incredibles' and thought, 'This is extraordinary. These are some of the best movies I've seen.'
The vast majority of Pittsburghers don't come from any kind of serious dough.
Sometimes I don't feel like an actor. Sometimes I speak about it like it was another job, and then I go, 'Wait a minute - I am one!'
I took my play very seriously, and I got way, way lost in my play world.
There are certainly producers I hang with and directors I hang with and actors I hang with.
I was raising a child full time, sharing the responsibility with his mom. He lived with me half the time, so I chose not to go away and make certain movies.
Sometimes I do movies that aren't any good, or sometimes I might not be any good in them, or sometimes they don't do very well.
The first feature film I did, when I did 'Night Shift,' I improvised quite a bit because I would improvise at the audition, so sometimes I would return to the original lines, and then when I was on set, I would improvise even more.
Over the years, I think, people - actors, writers, whatever - lose their frame of reference. Their frame of reference is based on somebody else who did this or did that. Performances. So it just becomes a reflection of what already works. Like a warm-up. And that's an invitation to be inauthentic.
To say directing was a long-stewing ambition doesn't cover it. If you cut me open, you'd see it.
I used to work on a survey crew, because my dad was an engineer, but he was also a surveyor.
Historically, I'm not a great patient when it comes to slowing down.
I come from a background where you don't really talk about yourself much.
Weirdly, for someone who wanted to be funny, I didn't like a lot of attention.
My brothers were tremendous shack builders. My shacks were horrible. My brothers once built a two-story shack from the ground up that was awesome!
I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but I very often like the way Europeans make movies. I think sometimes that don't they care about having to clean certain things.
There're only a few photographers I've ever felt really comfortable with.
If I'm going to meditate, there is a little church up in Montecito, California. It's an old Spanish mission, actually. I find it comforting in there.
I reached a point where I didn't think I was that great. I'm not being humble. I was looking at things and thinking: 'You're not really good in that'. I think I was becoming boring as well as bored. It was nobody's fault except mine - probably - and it might not even be my fault.
I try to not be or associate with elitists.
Chris Guest movies are funny.
If you get a good comedy once a year, man, that's pretty good. I may be pickier than some, but still, there aren't that many movies that are really, truly, honestly that funny.
My limited theater experience was when I was a kid starting out: two or three plays. I was good in one and mediocre in the other. My problem is that I have other interests.
Will Ferrell makes me laugh a lot when he gets out there and gets crazy.
I'm getting more and more bored with professional sports, but I still watch.
I'd get scripts and think: 'What's the point of this?'
I have some tremendous, tremendously loving, generous friends all over the world.
I always think that I'm not going to be right for a movie or that there's someone else who can do it better.