Matt Dillon Quotes

I know this sounds kind of crazy, but I think we're all actors.

One of my greatest fears is not being able to change, to be caught in a never-ending cycle of sameness. Growth is so important.

I only hear my own voice. When you start hearing other voices, then it's time to worry.

I don't hide out. If you build a wall around yourself, it draws people to invade it. Fear is the enemy.

I think the reason I've survived that long is because I've taken my work so seriously. Maybe sometimes too seriously, but it's always been important for me to do my best regardless of the film. I think the biggest compliment I get is when people on the street stop me and say they've liked the choices I've made.

These are people who haven't gone through the legal means to becoming citizens like our forefathers did. They want all the benefits but none of the responsibilities.

One of my biggest fears is not being able to break out of a rut; of becoming a prisoner to my ways, unable to change course. But in my mid-thirties, I learned you can change your thinking.

Love is messy. It's not something that's real clean.

In politics there are so many holes, so many contradictions, you don't know what's happening.

I don't know why, but I like the saxophone.

It's a pretty good job being an actor, but it's work sometimes. And when I say work, I mean it's a job. You're going to a job.

Well I can tell you that for me generally speaking that I think things that I deal with are all to do with not accepting things, not excepting life on life's terms. My life becomes a lot easier when I'm willing to just accept. I don't have to like circumstances as they are, but I have to accept them and that's where I always seem to get thrown, when I try to will my way instead of accept things the way they are.

It's tough when you started out as young as I did to look back and see how far I've come. I try to be easy on myself and go 'Look man, you were younger, you were learning; you learn, you grow.' But I'm not my best judge. I always feel like my best work is still ahead of me.

I think we're all actors. There's this friend of mine who's a great drummer, and he said, "I never thought I'd be a drummer, but I got really good at it. I always feel like I'm an actor playing the drums." His real calling was that he was going to be a magician. That's what he felt like he wanted to do. If you decide to act like a journalist, you'll probably be a better journalist than just being a journalist. What you're doing is, you're taking the executive role and stepping outside yourself so that you're able to make more objective decisions.

I'm not a Buddhist, or a card-carrying member of any religion.

The worst thing I could be accused of is that I'm a one-way dude, only out for myself. But the worst thing a woman can do is not to say anything. Especially when you're starting a relationship.

When I was twenty-two it was a lot harder to get hurt by women. It was easier for me to, you know, cheat on a girlfriend. I can't lie like that anymore.

I used to make fun of the kids in school who acted or went to dance class.

If people are reacting to films based on their degree of success or failure, then they're not really looking at the movie. I don't really care about that. Everyone's entitled to an opinion, but at least base your opinion on the merit of the work itself.

I'm drawn to women who live in a world different from my own. I don't believe you have to marry someone from your own backyard. James Joyce married a woman who never read any of his books.

I don't like to give out advice. I make suggestions when I get to know somebody a little bit, but I don't know about advice.

It seems like a cliche, but you do grow up a lot faster when you travel a lot, go through things like this interview, spend time away from home and hang around with other actors. It's inevitable that you're not going to have a so-called normal childhood.

I sometimes think love is God's way of hoodwinking people into having kids. You fall in love, and all that passion goes into procreating and wanting children. I've felt that need to want to raise a child. It's a creative urge.

Racism was just a tool to deal with frustration and pain and that people are in denial about the way we feel and desperately trying to control their environment the way their lives are. And ultimately their scapegoats aren't going to make them feel better, it's just going to increase hatred and the problem gets worse and worse.

As an actor, you can't be off the market for too long.