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Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Quotes

Actor

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for his roles in films such as '10 Things I Hate About You', 'The Dark Knight Rises', and 'Donnie Darko'.

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Famous Joseph Gordon-Levitt Quotes

“I don't think you necessarily have to be the most perfected performer, in order to express your feelings. It's really those feelings that an audience connects with, I think, at least as much as perfected technical skill.”

Thinking Feelings Order Audience Skills Performers Technical Skills

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Genres give a vocabulary. They give a frame of reference for the audience to enter into a movie. Then, once they have their footing, that's when you can start doing things that they don't expect.”

Giving Audience Genre Vocabulary Frame Of Reference

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“The director is the most important because, ultimately, as an actor, when you watch a movie, it looks like an actor is giving a performance, and they kind of are. But, what's actually happening is that an actor has given a bunch of ingredients over to a director, who then constructs a performance. That's movie-making.”

Giving Looks Kind Important Actors Given Watches Directors Happenings Performances Bunch Ingredients Constructs Movie Making

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“It's nice to not feel like you're just re-enacting a preconceived moment, but there's room for an organic feeling to develop while the camera is rolling. Even amidst these enormous technical productions, Chris [ Nolan] always prioritized making sure that sort of spontaneous and organic feeling could happen at the moment.”

Feels Moments Feelings Happens Rooms Nice Like You Cameras Productions Enormous Rolling Spontaneous Nolan

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I'm the last person to tell my friends to go see something I'm in. I could care less if friends of mine never saw anything I'm in.”

Ifs Persons Care Lasts Saws Mines My Friends Could Care Less

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Don't we want to escape our real world and go into something larger than that, simpler than that, more beautiful or darker?”

World Want Real Beautiful Real World

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Every day I've got to be thankful that I am alive, and you never know - the cliche is, I guess, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so you'd better be at peace with whatever you got going at the moment.”

Knows Moments Motivational Alive Tomorrow Bus Being Thankful Cliche I Am Alive

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“The spiral in a snail's shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it's also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It's the same ratio that you'll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world.”

World Way Culture Shells Dna Galaxy Ratios Spirals Snail Milky Way

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“As soon as you are trying to be funny or dramatic, that's when things start feeling fake and boring.”

Trying Feelings Funny Boring Fake Dramatic

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Supermarket tabloids and celebrity gossip shows are not just innocently shallow entertainment, but a fundamental part of a much larger movement that involves apathy, greed and hierarchy.”

Shows Movement Fundamentals Greed Entertainment Gossip Apathy Shallow Hierarchy Supermarkets Tabloids Celebrity Gossip

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“There's something really appealing about the simplicity of black-and-white images.”

Black White Simplicity Black And White

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“The thing about Occupy is that the sentiment the movement embodies is timeless: Don't be greedy, share.”

Share Movement Sentiments Timeless Greedy

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“If you're going to put yourself above everybody else, you might end up alone.”

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Storytelling in general is a communal act. Throughout human history, people would gather around, whether by the fire or at a tavern, and tell stories. One person would chime in, then another, maybe someone would repeat a story they heard already but with a different spin. It's a collective process.”

People Humans Persons Different Stories Process Fire Heard Storytelling Repeats Collectives Human History Chimes Taverns

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“The most valiant thing you can do as an artist is inspire someone else to be creative.”

Artist Can Do Creative Inspire Be Creative Valiant

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Sometimes what someone else does is really not what you expected them to do, which to be honest, sometimes doesn't work.”

Doe Sometimes Honest Expected Being Honest

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“When I started editing on my home computer, I said to myself, 'Well, I could be at home studying for a class or I could be at home editing a video.'”

Wells Said Home Class Study Computer Video Editing

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“The Internet is allowing us to get back to what's really more natural, which is that storytelling is a shared thing. It's our natural way to be communal.”

Way Natural Internet Storytelling Get Back Allowing

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Celebrity doesn't have anything to do with art or craft. It's about being rich and thinking that you're better than everybody else.”

Thinking Art Rich Crafts Being Rich

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I have a really terrible sense of direction.”

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“My dad never blew anything up, but he probably had friends who did. He and my mom have always preached that the pen is mightier than a Molotov cocktail.”

Mom Dad My Dad My Mom Pens Cocktails Molotov Molotov Cocktail

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I think some of the best actors ever were little kids.”

Thinking Littles Kids Actors Little Kid

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I was studying for the SAT's and learning lines.”

Lines Study Sat

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Actors didn't use to be celebrities. A hundred years ago, they put the theaters next to the brothels.”

Years Use Next Actors Hundred Years Ago Theater Brothels Use To Be

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Comedy takes a very specific technique, specific skills.”

Comedy Skills Technique

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Even today, in our progressive times, in most movies that come out, the men have to have biceps and the women have to be thin or something.”

Men Today Progressive Biceps

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Hollywood has the idea that movies have to be dumb. But especially movies for or about teenagers have to be really dumb!”

Ideas Hollywood Dumb Teenager Really Dumb

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I didn't really like doing commercials.”

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I don't blame folks for not wanting to put me in their movies or whatever. I understand if their audiences had an association with me.”

Ifs Audience Blame Folks Association

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I just like to do work that inspires me, and I don't pay any attention to whether it's a high- or low-budget movie.”

Pay Attention Inspire Lows Budgets

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I like making little videos and little records. I've always loved video cameras and four-track cassette recorders, still cameras, anything.”

Littles Stills Records Four Cameras Track Video Recorders Cassettes Video Cameras

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I was just watching baby videos of me and I was obviously an exhibitionist.”

Baby Video Exhibitionist

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Most scripts are bad. I read a lot of them.”

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“There's an absolute prejudice that good movies are dramas and comedies are more dismissable. But I couldn't disagree more.”

Comedy Drama Prejudice Absolutes Disagree Good Movie Absolute Freedom

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“When I arrived at Columbia, I gave up acting and became interested in all things French. French poetry, French history, French literature.”

Literature Acting All Things Gave Up Columbia French Literature French Poetry

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors.”

Actors Teacher Concepts Astronaut

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I think, honestly, that the word 'indie' is a false gimmick. 'Independent' used to mean a movie that was financed outside corporate Hollywood, but a lot of what gets called independent these days is totally produced within that system. And there's nothing wrong with that.”

Thinking Mean Used Hollywood Independent Honestly Corporate These Days Gimmicks

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“When I was a teenager, if anyone recognized me for anything I did, it would ruin my day. I couldn't handle it. It was some sort of neurotic phobia. I guess I was paranoid that people would treat me differently, or in an unfair way, because of my job.”

People Ifs Way Jobs Treats Handle Ruins Teenager Unfair Neurotic Paranoid Phobia

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“A lot of the motivation for doing the 'Make 'Em Laugh' on SNL was because I had just finished shooting 'Inception,' where there were zero-gravity scenes and I got into really good shape and was training and did all these stunts. Coming off of that, that instilled me with the confidence to do 'Make 'Em Laugh.'”

Motivation Laughing Scene Shapes Training Finished Shooting Ems Zero Gravity Inception Snl Zero Gravity

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I didn't want to just work within Hollywood when I started a production company. I wanted to be able to collaborate with great artists from all over the world.”

World Want Able Wanted Artist Company Hollywood Productions Great Artist

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“If the goal is to get the best artists, actors, and filmmakers in the world to create the best movies, Hollywood does a decent job. And I think no one would disagree with me that it also makes a ton of bad movies and employs a bunch of hacks.”

Ifs Thinking World Doe Jobs Artist Actors Goal Hollywood Bunch Filmmaker Decent Disagree Hacks Bad Movies Best Artist

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Normally you read a screenplay - and I read a lot of them - and the characters don't feel like people. They feel like plot devices or cliches or stereotypes.”

People Feels Character Plot Devices Stereotype Cliche Screenplays

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“eating is the sleeping of being awake.”

Sleep Eating Awake

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I think the way the media is going to work in the future is less something that the population consumes and more something that the population creates.”

Thinking Way Media Population Going To Work

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I think our culture is sick and tired of fluffy nonsense and people want something more sincere and heartfelt.”

People Thinking Want Culture Sick Tired Nonsense Sincere Want Something Heartfelt Fluffy

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“If the inspiration is genuine and it's coming from the right place, that's what I like and want to be a part of.”

Ifs Want Inspiration Genuine Right Place

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“The term 'popular culture' always used to mean what the people do - pop songs, folk songs, music in general used to live because people would sing these songs and tell these stories together. Then all of these new technologies came out and it became the work of professionals.”

People Mean Stories Together Used Song Culture Term Technology Folks Pops New Technology Popular Culture Pop Song Folk Songs

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“"Music is something that professionals do and not something that I do." That's not natural. Music belongs to everybody.”

Natural Music Is

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“I'd been an actor my whole life, since I was a kid. And then, I quit for awhile and went to university. When I wanted to start acting again, I couldn't get a job, and that was really depressing. So, I realized, at that time, that I have to take responsibility for my own creativity.”

Whole Kids Wanted Jobs Actors My Own Acting Responsibility Creativity University I Realized Whole Life Quitting Depressing Taking Responsibility I Quit Really Depressing

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

“Our culture has a tendency to pigeonhole people and to try to tear down anybody who's breaking out of our comfort zone. That's why we get into these cultural ruts that end up being destructive prejudices. But breaking out of that comfort zone is the most rewarding thing you can do, in your life. I do my best to push myself, when I can.”

People Trying I Can Ends Culture Can Do Tears Comfort Prejudice Tendencies Destructive Zone Comfort Zone Ruts

Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt

About the Author

Born: February 17, 1981
Known for: Actor
Quotes: 182

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