Paul Giamatti

I get tired of myself pretty fast.

I consider myself an atheist. My wife is Jewish. And I'm fine with my son being raised as a Jew. He's learning Hebrew and is really into it. I will talk to my own son about my atheism when the time is right. But there's a great tradition of Jewish atheism, there are no better atheists in the world than the Jews.

I definitely have a tendency to only see the blemishes of things, and see lots of things about my acting that I don't like.

I suppose there must be some way in which I'm compelled to show some side of myself - or of people - that's paranoid and fraught and beleaguered and downtrodden, just as Tom Cruise wants to show that he's terrifyingly upbeat and terrifyingly heroic all the time.

'Capricorn One' just seemed like... wow. That was it, y'know? Nothing was ever going to be better than that movie.

This whole business feels kind of intense, like a bad fit. Round peg, square hole. But whatever, I'll take it.

I don't think film actors need training, really.

I always would be happy to make a character even more unlikable, but you know, there's a limit and if you go there, you get into a very different kind of movie, man.

Am I really cool? You're telling me I'm cool? Well, that's good to hear.

If I play a more aggressive, stronger guy, I often go through my day feeling a bit better than when I play somebody who's not.

I'm clearly not Brad Pitt, and I'm never going to be Brad Pitt.

I learned how to fire a sniper rifle, which I'm sure will be useful at some point.

Now, actors get so familiarized with Eastern Europe. I never imagined I'd get as familiar with Budapest and Prague and places like that in my life.

I was a big 'Planet of The Apes' fan, so I was really excited about being in it. I had a really good time. I liked wearing all that stuff, and I liked playing the part.

I was more used to acting onstage, for a long time. I don't know, maybe I was temperamentally more suited to stage stuff. And there are things about the stage that I miss in a lot of ways.

As an actor, to have achieved financial stability is amazing. But I always have this weird fear that I'm not going to get any more work; it's about not having enough money.

There is something pleasurable for an actor to produce something and not be in it.

I don't feel like I've ever done anything - even 'Big Momma's House' - that I didn't really have some desire to do.

I'm not a big wine guy. And bars, I never go to bars anymore. It's such a drag, man.

Lead roles are fun, but I'm especially happy other, more colorful supporting stuff has come along.

I wanted to play Zapruder, as he is a man you really don't know much about: a faceless, anonymous figure.

I have the mentality of a supporting actor.

I like playing weird, kind of shady people.

I don't consider myself a very interesting person. I have the mentality of a supporting actor.

I find that the crazy narcissists, the selfish loons are often the most fun to be around, weirdly.

I like to work - I probably work too much.

I've got to be the geekiest guy in the world in a lot of ways. I'm like a zeta male.

I still want to be the guy who can get on the subway and check out the freak on the subway.

Somehow whatever I play ends up being sleazy.

I never thought I would have any particular career in movies at all.

Academia is a rarified culture, especially an Ivy League academic background.

I don't mind talking about acting. I don't have anything interesting to say about it, but it's interesting talking about it.

With 'Duplicity', I was a little bit like, 'This isn't that hard of a movie.' This isn't like some huge brain trust of a movie. You gotta be a little bit awake to follow the plot, but it's really just a kind of light entertainment. It's like those Cary Grant movies, which are not meant to be anything other than diverting. In a nice way.

I definitely had a top-notch education.

It'd be disingenuous to say I don't like attention - I'm an actor for God's sake - and it's flattering and all, but attention was never my big goal. I just like to work and have a good time.

Sometimes, I think I may be more recognizable because I'm character-looking.

It's funny: most people who recognize me on the subway and stuff - it's much more they think of me as a funny guy. I get much more of people telling me how much I make them laugh, actually. Which is nice.

I don't mind being stereotyped in some way and playing certain kinds of guys, but if I can find something to occasionally get a break from that, that would be nice. And I feel like I manage to.

You are absolutely free to describe me as a turtle or something.

I've very critical of myself, and film has been an adjustment for me.

Well, you know, when people say stuff about you, it's always really flattering. But does it mean anything to me? It's not really real to me; there's no reality to it.

I mean, I'm not going to play the hero of something.

I would probably choose supporting roles if I had to make a choice. It's actually a really hard thing to say. It's all on a role-by-role basis, ultimately. I shouldn't be so quick to say that. I feel like you're given greater license to be colorful and eccentric in supporting roles, and that's interesting to me.

I played old men back in drama school. It's just now that I'm drawing level with the age of the characters I play, but I'm fine with that, and I've certainly never envied people who became hugely famous when they were young.

It is because my dad died suddenly that I became an actor. I thought, I'm going to make money doing this thing I enjoy.

I remember when I was at the first showing of 'John Dies at the End' at Sundance, and I was talking to some of the people in the standby crowd who were outside and didn't have tickets. They were just waiting in line to see if they could get in. It was this whole gang of die-hard sci-fi wacko people, and they were just fantastic.

The supporting thing can be harder to pop in and out of. The hardest thing is the people who have to come in and play, say, the bartender for a day - that's a lot harder than playing the lead role. You have to pop in and get it right. It's a lot of pressure to just pop in there and fit in and find your footing really fast.

I try to avoid people as much as possible. They might change my life!

Most conspiracies interest me because of the people who are into them, and the lengths they'll go to expose it or the evidence they think they have. All that stuff. There's just something so beautiful to me about people who sincerely believe we never went to the moon. It gives me so much joy.

Acting can be a really silly thing. It's like playing dress-up.

I was the youngest child and got a lot more freedom than my brother and sister. I used to wander, doing my own thing under the radar, but I didn't get in bad, bad trouble.

I don't really have any opinion about my performance in 'Big Momma's House.'