Top 40 Steve Guttenberg Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “When you have nothing to lose, the sky’s the limit.”

— Steve Guttenberg

2. “Underneath all the skin, we’re all the same.”

— Steve Guttenberg

3. “A career is a series of ups and downs, of comebacks.”

— Steve Guttenberg

4. “Sometimes it’s good to miss a bus. It might be the wrong bus.”

— Steve Guttenberg

5. “I’ve always been proud of my character and how I live my life. So my regrets are few, and the ones I do have, I’m glad I have.”

— Steve Guttenberg

6. “If you’re an underdog, mentally disabled, physically disabled, if you don’t fit in, if you’re not as pretty as the others, you can still be a hero.”

— Steve Guttenberg

7. “A gay man can be friends with a straight man. That can happen.”

— Steve Guttenberg

8. “You never know who’s going to become your friend. Friends are always chance meetings.”

— Steve Guttenberg

9. “Directing is a tremendous art.”

— Steve Guttenberg

10. “I’ve made a lot of people a lot of money, and I’ve made a lot of people really happy. I’ve entertained millions and millions of people.”

— Steve Guttenberg

11. “Making art is an act of courage. Do you know who said that?”

— Steve Guttenberg

12. “What life really is all about is happiness. It’s not money, or stature, or the amount of cars you have in your driveway. Life, a really successful life, is one in which you are loved and love somebody else, or some other people.”

— Steve Guttenberg

13. “I turned down Short Circuit 2 too and I now wish I hadn’t. Sequels are a lot of fun and you get to hang out with all your friends.”

— Steve Guttenberg

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14. “Everyone keeps asking me, What are you doing? I say, Why do I need to do anything? I’m rich.”

— Steve Guttenberg

15. “I’m not bragging but my movies have grossed well over a billion dollars.”

— Steve Guttenberg

16. “When people are nasty, it gets everybody’s attention, and it gives them a name.”

— Steve Guttenberg

17. “If you put down a list of jobs, doctor, lawyer, janitor, teacher or movie star, everybody would pick the movie star. And why? So you could lie around the pool, drink margaritas and send money to your parents. So that’s what I did.”

— Steve Guttenberg

18. “The allure of Hollywood is huge when you don’t know anything. You don’t know the knives behind the smiles.”

— Steve Guttenberg

19. “No matter how bad your life gets, you can always turn it around.”

— Steve Guttenberg

20. “There are 100,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild. Only 2,000 of them make more than $75,000 a year.”

— Steve Guttenberg

21. “Unless you’re Jack Lemmon or Cary Grant, there are few guys who can do comedy and drama.”

— Steve Guttenberg

22. “In show business, you can’t make a living. You can only make a fortune, but you can’t make a living.”

— Steve Guttenberg

23. “My thoughts were to become a dentist when I first went to Albany State. I didn’t know where I would end up, but I knew I’d be happy, and I knew I would have a nice life. That was always my goal, to have a nice, happy life. That’s, to me, being rich.”

— Steve Guttenberg

24. “Wanting to work is a luxury; having to work is not. If you’re an artist, an actor, and you don’t have to work, then you do work that you wanna do.”

— Steve Guttenberg

25. “It’s all about commerce. Movies are not made like paintings, where you can make them for free and put them at the side. Movies are supposed to make money.”

— Steve Guttenberg

26. “I’m lucky to be in this business. I’m very grateful.”

— Steve Guttenberg

27. “In Utah, there are no bad things in the water there. It’s just smooth, really beautiful.”

— Steve Guttenberg

28. “From 1980 to 1990, I shot more films than any other actor in the Screen Actors Guild, apart from Gene Hackman.”

— Steve Guttenberg

29. “I’m somebody who deserves to be supported and encouraged to continue my work because I have a lot to give.”

— Steve Guttenberg

30. “Show business has never been my everything. It’s a means; it’s not the end. It’s a means to the end. I want and have always wanted freedom. That was always my goal, to not have a boss, to not have anybody tell me what to do. Luckily, as an actor, I got that.”

— Steve Guttenberg

31. “Typecasting is a good thing. It’s good to be known for what you do.”

— Steve Guttenberg

32. “I’m somebody who’s really contributed to culture. Popular culture.”

— Steve Guttenberg

33. “Someone’s just told me the English are still trying to take over the United States – is that true?”

— Steve Guttenberg

34. “You can tell when you’re in a hit.”

— Steve Guttenberg

35. “It’s good Xerox is known for its copying machines, and it’s good Jim Carrey is known for comedy.”

— Steve Guttenberg

36. “Let’s look at people as artists and try to support them; just because Picasso painted a couple of bad paintings, that’s no reason to say he’s a lousy painter.”

— Steve Guttenberg

37. “I love the fame and the money and the power. You have to keep working to have that.”

— Steve Guttenberg

38. “I’ve only had good experiences with actors. Starring next to them and directing them, for the most part they’re all inspiring, special people.”

— Steve Guttenberg

39. “You’re never really playing yourself. You’re always acting. It’s an illusion that you’re really playing yourself. The only time I’m playing myself is when I’m at home!”

— Steve Guttenberg

40. “For 15 years I did two to three movies a year, sometimes four. I didn’t get to spend time building my personal life.”

— Steve Guttenberg

41. “There’s tons of waste on every film. It really doesn’t matter the budget, as long as it hits a bull’s-eye.”

— Steve Guttenberg

42. “It is hard to look back and talk about a set of disjointed experiences as though they were part of one smooth progression.”

— Steve Guttenberg

43. “When you’re starting out as an actor, there isn’t much food around. I was lucky to have a hit pretty early on. I didn’t starve too long.”

— Steve Guttenberg

44. “Wanting to work is a luxury; having to work is not.”

— Steve Guttenberg

45. “I’m not going to say, I’m an actor and I’m changing the world. Who cares?”

— Steve Guttenberg

46. “Every film can be fun, even if it’s a terror.”

— Steve Guttenberg

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