John Lithgow > Quotes

“The most exciting acting tends to happen in roles you never thought you could play.”
― John Lithgow

“Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.”
― John Lithgow

“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”
― John Lithgow

“Time sneaks up on you like a wind shield on a bug.”
― John Lithgow

“mine is the only photograph of an American actor to grace the walls of the Actors’ Bar at The Dirty Duck.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“If you hear enough applause and laughter at a young enough age, you are doomed to become an actor.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“A year of weekly paychecks had created a severe dependency in me, and I desperately needed to break it.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“had traveled to London to study acting, pricked on by the sense that classical English acting was the high-water mark in English-speaking theater. I would soon learn a surprising truth: I came from America, home to an acting tradition that my new English friends envied, to an even greater degree than I envied theirs.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“I always knew I'd be preaching to the choir. Slap the title 'Dumpty' on a book of political humor, and your bias is glaringly obvious. From the beginning, I've intended these verses for people who oppose our current President, hoping to briefly yank them out of their chronic depression at his persistent grip on executive power.”
― John Lithgow, Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse

“My great hero was that archetype of cheerful American normalcy, Norman Rockwell.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“He told me that, in fact, he had always imagined me as a producer-director, beholden to nobody and immune to the constant rejection that all actors must endure. If you must go into the theater, he advised, be the person in charge and acquire the skills to do it right.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“FAKE NEWS People say that heretofore I kept Black tenants from my door Using legal trickery, But fake news doesn’t bother me. They say that falsifying facts is How I skirted all my taxes. People call it larceny, But fake news doesn’t bother me. Constantly I’m found at fault, Charged with sexual assault, Harassment, and adultery, But fake news doesn’t bother me. Starving students, people say, Had their futures ripped away By Dumpty University, But fake news doesn’t bother me. They smear me with the vilest things Like payoffs for my casual flings From the campaign treasury, But fake news doesn’t bother me. People say I monetize All my presidential ties, Boosting my prosperity, But fake news doesn’t bother me. They say my meddling in Ukraine Left an ignominious stain Tantamount to treachery, But fake news doesn’t bother me. They say in days coronaviral I propelled our downward spiral Through my imbecility, But fake news doesn’t bother me. Notwithstanding crimes like these, I’ll continue as I please. Fake news doesn’t bother me. I’ll just rewrite history. Among other allegations, Donald Trump is said to have discriminated against African Americans as a New York real estate developer; committed tax fraud to avoid paying income tax on $50 million; engaged in sexual misconduct toward more than twenty-five women; endorsed Trump University’s fraudulent scheme to target the uneducated and the elderly; used the power of his office to attempt blackmail in Ukraine; and mishandled the government’s early response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age

“It slowly dawned on me that, for most of the audience, the show’s main attraction was neither the play nor the production but Liv.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“blithering idiot, gone round the bend:”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age

“When in the world will this lunacy end?”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age

“Worst.”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age

“My snobbery made me do it.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“Dumpty the Bigot.”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age

“Burton began that evening gracious, charming, and sober. Liv and I watched in fascination and horror, exchanging eye-rolling glances, as too much drink gradually turned that splendid man into a boorish, self-loathing sot.”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“Given that Dumpty is such a crude, paranoid, petulant, cowardly, vicious liar, con man, and crook, would you want to work in an office where he was in charge? Would you want to join his downtrodden White House staff or the weird cast of characters in his cabinet? Would you want him to invest your life savings for you? Would you want to sit next to him at a dinner party, picnic, or sporting event? Would you want to carpool or (God forbid!) drive cross-country with him? Would you hire him to babysit your toddler or fix him up with your best friend’s daughter? Would you ask him to speak at your own memorial service? If you answer no to all of these questions (and how could you not?) then why in the world would you entrust your country’s future and the future of this fragile planet to him? Pause for a moment and contemplate your own contradictory leanings.”
― John Lithgow, Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse

“I went to Harvard because I got in. This is not the best reason to pick a college,”
― John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor's Education

“he’s Dumpty the”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age

“Despite the opposition of several prominent Republican officials,”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age

“POTUS whose pants are routinely on fire Could be Dumpty the Huckster or Dumpty the Liar. With his bullshit throughout our pandemic attack, An apt nom de guerre would be Dumpty the Quack.”
― John Lithgow, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age