Steve Carell Quotations

Whenever I'm offered something, I always read the script and meet the director. I still appreciate just being considered.

In the United States, there is a restaurant called The Outback Steakhouse, and I could survive in there for several weeks at least, sustaining myself on bloomin' onions and, I'm sure, their legitimate and very Australian cuisine. In the real Outback? I give myself about 14 minutes.

Everybody wants to be a Bond villain. That is the coolest. To be able to portray a Bond villain, that is the feather in any actor's cap.

My wife is way funnier than I am. As much as I don't really feel I share a sense of humour with my family, I definitely share one with her - we find the same things funny.

I had a lot of coaches growing up that were very hard on the kids in the name of building character, but it could have the opposite effect on kids.

I love my wife dearly, and, therefore, I've never cooked a meal, romantic or otherwise, for her.

I look at improvising as a prolonged game of chess. There's an opening gambit with your pawn in a complex game I have with one character, and lots of side games with other characters, and another game with myself - and in each game you make all these tiny, tiny moves that get you to the endgame.

I'm not a crazy Vegas guy. I'm not a gambler.

I don't think something necessarily has to be mean or cynical to represent 'edgy.' I think 'edgy' can mean a lot of different things.

I think in most relationships that have problems, there's fault on both sides. And in order for it to work, there has to be some common ground that's shared. And it's not just one person making amends.

I don't like to get angry. It doesn't make me feel good. It is very human, but it's also a loss of control, and I like to have that kind of control.

Sending a handwritten letter is becoming such an anomaly. It's disappearing. My mom is the only one who still writes me letters. And there's something visceral about opening a letter - I see her on the page. I see her in her handwriting.

I was sort of traumatized by girls in the third grade. Because there was a girl in my third grade class I had a crush on. I bought her a box of Valentine's Day chocolate. And I put it in her cubby with a note that said something like, 'I am deeply in love with you, Your Secret Admirer.' And I didn't sign my name.

My maternal grandma was a tough, tough lady and a stern woman, who lost her husband young and raised six kids by herself. She lived in a mining community in Upstate New York and ran a boarding house for miners. She took care of an entire family and miners who lived in the house as well.

I don't text, I don't have a Blackberry. Literally, I just have a cell phone that I haven't programmed and the whole Bluetooth. No. I don't even have an earpiece for my cell phone.

The best food is in Chicago. There are great restaurants everywhere, from fancy places to burger joints.

I joined an improv group in college, which was a lot of fun. After I graduated, I moved to Chicago to try to get into the Second City.

I remember my wife wanted me to go see 'Contagion,' and I was like, 'Oh my God, why would I want to see that movie?' I mean, I'll just have nightmares and it will freak me out. It turned out that I really enjoyed it; I thought it was very well done.

In an enclosed space, a camel's breath can change the atmosphere of the room. Not only just the smell, they literally seem to change the atmospheric pressure. It's so disgusting. It's like they have eight stomachs each more rancid then the next and it just comes out of their mouth.

I play the baritone horn - which is like a mini tuba, and is the least sexy instrument you can choose, and I generally say I don't play one so I don't have to acknowledge it. I also play fife.

I'm not good with pickup lines or flirting. I don't have that kind of self-confidence or natural charisma.

I have no idea where my pathetic nature comes from. If I thought about it too long, it would depress me.

'Anchorman'... is not grounded in anything. There is absolutely no heart to that movie, which I love.

Steve Buscemi is hilarious. He's really, really good with improv.

I was a bad dater, and up until 8th grade I went to an all boy's school. So, by the time I hit high school I was a bit freaked out by women in general.

Nothing to me feels as good as laughing incredibly hard.

We've already shot two episodes, and I'm going back soon to shoot a third,

When I auditioned for the part, I had no idea how beloved the BBC version was. If I had known, I would have been scared out of my mind. I just wanted to do something funny and slightly different. I didn't want to be held up to a TV icon.

My job doesn't define my kids in any way. When we go to places, it's about them and it's about us as a family. I think they're proud of me, but I'm just Dad.

I'm a taker in terms of jokes. I love to hear a good joke, but I don't retain jokes. I'm not a good teller of jokes.

I can't imagine it getting any better than this right now. From here, it's bound to be all downhill.

I always thought that if I could get on a sitcom as maybe the wacky neighbor, that would be pretty incredible.

He does his job just well enough to keep it. The ridiculous exploits and faux pas are just this side of lawsuit territory so he continues to ride the wave of inefficiency and lack of expertise. I don't think that's necessarily unusual that one might be very good at one job and then is promoted, and you have no proficiency whatsoever.

Just the idea of him with a love interest is mind-boggling, ... I don't know how it could be handled.

Evan Almighty' is sort of a continuation of that ('Bruce Almighty') story. My character is the same guy I played in 'Bruce Almighty,' and as it is now, I am elected to Congress. God visits me while I'm a congressman, and it unfolds from there.

The very first thing we talked about was tone,

It was tough to find the right tone, ... The first time, it was way too graphic. It pulled people out of the movie.

It was a lot like Second City in the sense that there was a great freedom to fail there.

Once you have all those emotional aspects in line and you're in sync with the other person, then you find out what it really is and how great it can be, ... putting the cart before the horse, and you can probably make a pun out of that, as well.

Ah, yes, the chest hair-waxing scene, ... That was 100% real - complete with real pain.

You're telling me I have a gift for the pathetic. I have no idea where my pathetic nature comes from. If I thought about it too long, it would depress me.

You never really know what the camera is picking up in a scene -- or even where it is. There are stealth shots that surprise us all the time.

This is the most surreal moment for me ever,

The BBC show is iconic, and you can't set that as a goal. All we tried to do was make a funny show based on the template, which is hilarious. And that was really our only goal.

It was kind of like they were just giving us a toy to play with, to do whatever we wanted with.

It's really a comedy about all these people who are looking for the loves of their lives, and struggling to find happiness during this pursuit,

So, at least the way I saw it, those first six episodes, we were very new as characters to this documentary crew, so we were more awkward with the crew ... And now that the crew has been there for a while, we're sort of getting used to them and playing to them and getting a little more confident in terms of how we use the camera.

I had no idea it would be as painful as it was, ... It really stung.

I'm telling people that I lost it at 17, only because it sounds like a good age. I made a deal with my wife before the movie came out that I wouldn't say.

He's likable and normal but is a slight degree of a hermit and has a huge secret, ... I think it bothers him, but he's getting through and trying to keep a stiff upper lip about it.

I do hope someday to play a part that is less of a jerk.

For the better part of my adult life, I proudly avoided nerd/nimrod/goober status. I was always just cool enough.

It's nice to find people who live on the fringe, finding one another and she's just unrelentingly funny.

The ability to compromise and having the ability to laugh at ourselves is huge and works well for me.

People know where romantic comedies are going. It's not brain surgery to figure out the end of a romantic comedy.

I had, like, two goals in my career: One was to try to get into 'Second City.' When I moved to Chicago, my goal was to try to work at 'Second City.' And beyond that, my goal was to make enough money as an actor to not do anything else but act, not have to go and wait tables again.

If we were meant to read for enjoyment, would God have created television? Read as it was intended - for exercise. The more you read, the more you expand your - what's the word I'm looking for? - your stockpile of words. You must have a stockpile of words that you can pass along to your children for their stockpile.

I think ultimately, when you believe somebody is going through a situation and it's either awkward or ridiculous, but you believe it, that can be funny.

My father is Italian, and I never met my paternal grandparents. The family name was 'Caroselli' and it was changed in the mid '50s. I think they wanted to assimilate, which was pretty common, although I love the name 'Caroselli.'

Oh, I so don't care about the podium at the Oscars. I've stood at the podium at the Oscars and that's close enough. To be a presenter is as close as I need to be.

Once I moved to Chicago and started trying to get acting jobs, I just tended to book more things that were comedically based than anything else. I never had the preconceived notion, 'I will be a comedic actor.' I just thought, 'I'll go into acting and see what kind of work I can get.'

Style advice? Always wear clothes... that are... clean, for starters. An added bonus if it is pressed as well. Unless you are wearing clothes that are supposed to look rumpled.

There's such a freewheeling nature to 'Second City,' and the greatest thing about 'Second City' was having a sophisticated audience night after night who appreciated what it was. They knew it wasn't all going to be great when you improvised, so they were very forgiving that way.

Different things just strike people differently. And it's so subjective, too. Because what makes one person laugh won't make others laugh. I guess it's kind of checkerboarded.

Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead, we should tell them to plan to be surprised.

If somebody takes the parking place you were waiting for, I tend to kind of let it roll off my back. Maybe I'm harboring a lot of something and it will all explode somewhere down the road, but I tend to just let it slide off my back.

You never saw Peter Sellers the actor trying to make you laugh. All he was doing was the character. What I'm saying is that I don't think you should know you're in a movie. I don't like it when actors are winking at the audience and saying, 'Right, isn't this funny? Are you with me?'

You know what Disneyland is known for? The Big Turkey Leg. People walk around with enormous deep-fried turkey legs. Like little kids, three-year-old kids eating these five-pound turkey legs.

I don't ever want to take a part in order to prove that I'm capable of doing something. It's all based in doing stuff that's interesting or working with people who would be fun to work with.

When I first started looking at Twitter, I followed people like Steve Martin, who will just write the funniest non sequiturs now and then, which I thought was really fun. That's kind of the road I've taken. Every now and then, something comes into your mind and you put it out there. It's very innocuous. I think it's kind of fun.

My parents had a certain resolve to them that I don't see as so prevalent today. Through good times and bad, they were committed to one another. Their relationship wasn't something to be constantly examined or picked apart.

We are all facing the end one day or another. I say, live a good and prosperous life, make sure your choices count, make them count.

They love 3-D. It's fun to watch a movie in 3-D with your children or with a group of children because you see the kids in front of you from time to time reaching up. You see little hands reaching up to grab things that they think are right there. I think it's remarkable and it does obviously, literally, add another dimension to the movie.

Everyone is flawed and everyone makes mistakes and is culpable.

It's not a master plan to do every remake and every recreation of icons. It's just what I've been hired to do.

I wasn't a class clown, I never developed this comedic flair as a kid. Even when I decided to become an actor, it was just to be an actor, not necessarily a comedic actor. I wasn't that guy who struck out with women so he became really funny, and that's when the women started to like him.

Everybody should be normal. Everybody should be nice. I think they go hand in hand, and that to me is the default setting.

Being an action star is all I had ever hoped to be. I ultimately knew I would be an action star.

[And on going from character to leading actor] I don't approach anything differently; I just approach it as a character. I'm always astounded at the fact that I've ever played a leading character in anything [Laughs]. And my wife concurs with that, frankly. She always thought I would be, at best, the wacky neighbor on a sitcom, so this is all just a surprise and a joy.

For the better part of my adult life, I proudly avoided nerd/nimrod/goober status. I was always just cool enough.

Goalies almost never get credit for winning a game, but they always get blamed for losing a game.

When you approach it, and I hate sounding like the pretentious actor, but yeah, I think you have to find things within the character that are likeable, or at least human, and not to go at it with any sort of predetermined notions as to what that character is.

How did I end up in films with people like Keira Knightley... all these beautiful leading ladies and me - it's kind of shocking.

I always feel so pretentious talking about comedy and deconstructing it. It always feels somehow self-centred to talk about any sort of process.

I don't think of myself as funny - I don't fill up a room with my humor... I would fail miserably as a stand-up comedian.

I know I'm not a woman's fantasy man; I don't have to uphold this image of male beauty, so that's kind of a relief in a way.

I'd love to do Broadway some day. Before I started doing television I was just a primarily a stage actor, but I haven't done it in a while.

For my wife and I, the challenge is to not make every day the best day possible because it's not realistic.

I'm not unattractive, but I'm not a matinee idol. I think I have a very non-threatening look - I'm fine, I'm right in the middle.

I've always enjoyed watching characters that aren't aware that they're doing anything funny. And I think that inherently makes them funnier.

It's interesting when you're trying to create a character in animation. It's really a communal effort.

I am happily married, and I think I was lucky that success came a little later in my life. It's difficult to handle all the attention when you are a young gun.

Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information.

I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious.

In my wildest dreams i never thought- well, I never thought I'd work

It's harder when people are playing along, because it's just not as funny. They're trying to be funny, and it sort of cancels out the whole joke.

You know, what's funny to one person is not at all to someone else.

You're so in love with your children that you'd do anything for them; that's not necessarily the best thing.

I think there's a little bit of idiot in everybody and I think some people cover it better than others but I think I am very much a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.

Divorce is fairly common these days, and I think many times people disregard the emotional impact that divorce has on a couple and a family, because it happens so frequently.