John Lithgow
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgowis an American actor, musician, singer, and author. He has received two Tony Awards, five Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, an American Comedy Award, four Drama Desk Awards and was also nominated for two Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards. Lithgow received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth19 October 1945
CountryUnited States of America
It's my theory that if you hear enough applause and laughter at a young enough age, you're doomed
That's how you deal with stardom; you make it the least important part of your life.
I keep looking for things I haven't done yet.
I was married very young. I lived a very middle class life. I was married at age 21, divorced at 31. I didn't sleep on people's couches.
I'd sleep under a Vermeer.
There's nothing like spending an evening with an audience every night.
I Need a Good Book I need a good story. I need a good book. The kind that explodes Off the shelf. I need some good writing, Alive and exciting, To contemplate all by myself. I need a good novel, I need a good read. I probably need Two or three. I need a good tale Of love and betrayal Or perhaps an adventure at sea. I need a good saga. I need a good yarn. A momentous and mightily Or slight one. But with thousands and thousands And thousands of books, I need someone to tell me The right one. -John Lithgow
We should have charity for what the dead say. We may disapprove of what they say, but we should not insult them and revile them knowing they cannot not defend themselves.
You have to overcome enormous self-consciousness, but nudity is about the strongest thing you can do in an acting performance. It's the most unsettling or the most comic or the most sexual.
I really prize and love great painting. It's so out of date now. It's slightly come back in.
I learned the most about myself, and you ask what I learned? Well, I learned my strengths and my weaknesses, and it's far more important to learn about your weaknesses than your strengths.
I always tell that to young people - go to college, do theater, work with an audience. Don't try to learn how to act in front of millions and millions of people. Don't make that your first ambition, to be on a sitcom or get into the movies. Learn who you are as an actor, and the best way to do that is to do it in front of an audience.
I think there are all sorts of ways of turning into an actor, and there are a vast variety of different actors. You know, you interview plenty of actors and you know they come at it from a different direction and acting means different things to a lot of people.
One of the things that gives me a lot of pleasure about both the solo show and the book is that it tells people about my dad. He really was an important man. He was a kind of pioneer of regional theater. He was the first American producer to ever produce all of Shakespeare plays.