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" My sense of myself is that I'm a character actor, and character actors are ready, willing, and able to do anything, to be totally different from themselves. That's my job, to be ready. I'm some kind of first responder. "

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" Voice work is fun. But about three-quarters of the things you enjoy about acting are just not there. You're not working with another actor; you're not working with an audience. You're just working with a bunch of writers and a microphone. It's very abstract. "

John Lithgow

Work

You

Acting

" The essence of comedy, drama, and horror is surprise. I have an uncanny ability to surprise people because they look at my face, and they don't know where I'm going. "

" Comedy is very, very hard to achieve. "

" There is less difference than you would imagine entertaining little children and entertaining adults. "

" Whenever I play a role, it's like I've been kidnapped inside my own body. "

John Lithgow

Inside

Own

" Churchill faced his own diminishing capabilities and increasing irrelevance by maintaining the sense that he was the only one who could solve whatever problem was before him. He was very often wrong, of course, but then he had spent so much of his life overcoming appalling mistakes, disasters, and rejections. "

" I was on the Harvard board of overseers for six years, between 1989 and 1995. "

" Actors are not necessarily smart people. "

" I loved playing Roberta Muldoon! "

" 'M. Butterfly' is usually the answer to the question, 'What has been your favorite experience?' The reason being, it is an astonishing play. "

" I'd sleep under a Vermeer. "

John Lithgow

Sleep

" Look at the darkest hit musicals - Cabaret, West Side Story, Carousel - they are exuberant experiences. They send you out of the theater filled with music. "

" One of the problems in our lives is that people from different segments of our society just don't communicate with each other, nor do you ever see entertainment where they communicate with each other and fight with each other. "

" It's not always easy to be proud of your government. "

" I'm probably a better granddad than dad because your role as a grandfather is to be fun, and I'm fun. "

" I owe my whole career as a storyteller to my father. He was an actor/director/producer and teacher. "

" Take care, be kind, be considerate of other people and other species, and be loving. "

" Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug. "

John Lithgow

You

Time

" My wife is a professor at UCLA in Los Angeles, but otherwise, I'd be right back living on the Upper West Side. "

" If you read in front of your kids, it's very likely that they'll become readers, too. "

" My hairline is receding. So my days as a romantic lead - even though I've never had them - are behind me. "

" My eagerness to please sometimes gets the better of me. "

John Lithgow

Sometimes

Eagerness

" I have a love/hate relationship with my height - I am 6 ft. 4 in. "

John Lithgow

Height

I Am

" We're in the business of using real emotions to bring pretend emotions to life. "

" Academics tend to have wonderfully infantile senses of humor. "

" To my mum, I owe security in a very insecure young life. We lived in about 10 different places because of my father's chequered career, and she always made me feel a sense of consistency and security. I was a well-mothered boy. "

John Lithgow

Consistency

Security

" Will Ferrell is my new favorite person in the business. He's a completely adorable man. "

John Lithgow

Man

Business

" I was married very young. I lived a very middle class life. I was married at age 21, divorced at 31. "

" I'm getting older, but better, too. And the roles are getting better. "

" I actually was very proud of 'Dexter' and had a wonderful time doing it, which must make me an extremely weird person. "