Sam Waterston

I’ve always done what I thought was good if I could live on what they were offering-and sometimes if I couldn’t. So even when I was broke, my career didn’t lack for interest.

I don’t think playing a villain is my greatest talent.

If there’s any business that instructs you in the strong hand of fate, it’s show business. You can plan and plan, but it’s what happens to you that really determines what your career will be like.

Shakespeare is the one who gets re-interpreted most frequently.

I came to New York in 1962 and it began to look like I might he able to make a living in 1972.

If you’re going to be born ugly and be an actor – the least they can do is let you play Lincoln.

I literally was saved by a role, from becoming a cab driver. I never did have to wait tables, though, so looking back I guess I had it pretty soft.

Obviously the first roles that you’re proud of are the ones that everybody else liked too.

I enjoy listening to opera at home, occasionally, but I would much rather see it than just listen to it.

I got a note from my father, who said that Success is wonderful, if you don’t inhale. That was his own aphorism, and I think it’s the very best thing he could have said to me or anyone else on the subject.

I’m sort of obsessed with the news. That is a syndrome. But I don’t watch a whole lot of TV.

Good directors say, Here’s where the play is. They stand by the heart of the matter. Some of them stand beside it.

The bad guys don’t always get punished and the good guys are not necessarily pure.

I think the bait for doing something really is always the part.

I’ve been able to do things that allow me to hold my head up and still be popular.

There is no problem that is not improved by effort, and no effort that is too paltry to be worth undertaking.

As for lawyers, it’s more fun to play one than to be one.

If I have to be typecast, I’d like it to be as Abraham Lincoln.