Top 100 Philip Seymour Hoffman Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 3

51. “I know some really great actors who are pretty judgmental people, pretty critical people. But they’re great actors. When they’re acting, that’s the craft.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

52. “Vanity is something that will only get in the way of doing your best work, and ultimately if you’re truly vain you care more about your work than how you look in your work. I actually consider myself a pretty vain guy when it comes to that.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

53. “I try to live my life in such a way that I don’t have any regrets. That’s probably why I work so much. I don’t want to feel I missed something important.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

54. “I got sober when I was 22 years old.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

55. “If I was a little bit younger I would worry more. I’d want to do one thing at a time but now I try to do a bunch of different things at a time if I can.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

56. “I got into plays in high school then I ended up going to college for it.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

57. “You have all the influence you choose to have.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

58. “Life’s pretty funny when you’re objectively on the outside looking at it.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

59. “I’ve never been on a cruise.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

60. “I think you gotta have an honesty and a humility about human nature and that it’s not about you at the end of the day.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

61. “It’s important to say that actors can’t act alone, it’s impossible. What we have to do is support each other.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

62. “I know that obviously, that if you want to get the story, if you want to get close to somebody, if you want to find out what is really the truth or what’s really interesting, you have to create a trust between these two things, between the journalist and the subject.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

63. “You have to understand that crew members make movies so they’re seeing a lot of actors all the time in their career acting.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

64. “Yeah, writers do hate writing.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

65. “In life, do you ever really know if you’re missing an opportunity? No, you really don’t.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

66. “Sometimes I’m uncomfortable with the level of fame I’ve got! It all depends on the day and what’s going on. I don’t desire any more fame. I don’t need it.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

67. “My love for the theater has always been a priority. That hasn’t changed. I got into acting that way. The film work that came up was really a surprise.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

68. “All over the world, young men and young women will always dream dreams.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

69. “Great talent admits shortcomings.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

70. “I didn’t have any idea that I would be able to have a career in film.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

71. “If you’re a human being walking the earth, you’re weird, you’re strange, you’re psychologically challenged.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

72. “I try not to plan that too much.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

73. “I think I’m less anonymous than I was.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

74. “Creating anything is hard.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

75. “Being with a kid always takes you to being a kid somehow, and they really are showing me a childhood I might not have had in some way.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

76. “Acting’s difficult for me because I think you have to be passionately involved in what you’re doing.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

77. “Actors are responsible to the people we play.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

78. “For me, acting is torturous, and it’s torturous because you know it’s a beautiful thing. I was young once, and I said, that’s beautiful and I want that. Wanting it is easy, but trying to be great – well, that’s absolutely torturous.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

79. “Plays never feel like the right thing to do at the time.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

80. “There’s nothing risky in talking about your personal life. People do it all the time.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

81. “People used to be funny about approaching me, but now they seem to think I’m as sane as anyone who’s done what I’ve done in movies can be.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

82. “I’m probably more personal when I’m acting than at any other time. More open, more direct. Because it allows me to be something that I can’t always feel comfortable with when I’m living my own life, you know? Because it’s make- believe.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

83. “No one wants to be pretentious about what they do or take it seriously, because that is just weird.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

84. “Well, in the theater, I think you’re actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

85. “Bob Glaudini, the writer, he’s a wonderfully talented man and all his plays and his screenplays, they all have sense of something bigger, even though you’re looking at something very simple.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

86. “Good work is the only thing that would make me feel jealous or envious.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

87. “I like to come to the set with very strong ideas and strong opinions about how to do things. And I like also dealing with somebody who’s like that.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

88. “The foibles of my body are pretty much out there in the work I do.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

89. “Ultimately, I think writing is a mixture of craft, inspiration, and being incredibly, courageously explorative with yourself – and being brutally honest, too.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

90. “People actually live with their id exposed. They’re not good at concealing what’s going on inside.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

91. “I work constantly but I work at a lot of different things. You know, I run a theater company in New York, I direct plays, act in plays, in movies, so I try to keep it eclectic.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

92. “People aren’t going to throw the kind of money at certain people that they used to.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

93. “I think directors should be confident in their leadership capabilities. I think directors should be confident in what they want to do.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

94. “I have a fine level of recognition in the business and among the acting community now, so I consider myself one of the lucky ones. If I didn’t think that, there would be something wrong with me. I’m grateful and thankful for what I’ve got.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

95. “I had a father who was a traveling salesman.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

96. “Directing is a really kind of amazing thing, because you’re helping others and, in the middle of that, you have to worry about yourself.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

97. “I’ve had to make the transition from sweeping in for 15 minutes, doing my stuff and clearing out, to carrying a movie for the duration – in a dress.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

98. “Being unemployed is not good for an actor. No, it isn’t, no matter how unsuccessful you are. Because you always remember getting fired from all the restaurants. You remember that stuff very, very strongly.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

99. “My mum is incredibly intelligent.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

100. “My soul is in good shape.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman