110+ Kevin Spacey Quotes (Charismatic, Versatile And Iconic)

Kevin Spacey is an American actor, producer, and singer. He is best known for his roles in films such as The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, and House of Cards. He has won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Top 10 Kevin Spacey Quotes

1. I feel it's a responsibility for anyone who breaks through a certain ceiling... to send the elevator back down and give others a helpful lift.
2. Sometimes the person who is the most logical is the person whom we call insane.
3. People have different reasons for the way they live their lives. You cannot put everyone's reasons in the same box.
4. You have to always be ready, always be alive, and always be willing to move in a new direction.
5. I find it sad that by not talking about who I sleep with, that makes me mysterious. There was a time when I would have been called a gentleman.
6. Mediocrity is the elephant in the room.
7. We're all victims of our own hubris at times.
8. I was not a studious kid, and I struggled to find things that would command my attention and engage my ideas and energies.
9. Wanting people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you'll notice you've got their strict attention.
10. The journey that we go on as actors is an interesting one and sometimes a revealing one.

Kevin Spacey Short Quotes

• You can't turn a "no" to a "yes" without a "maybe" in between.
• I'm aware that, from the outside, this looks like I've got quite an ego.
• There are good people in the lobbying industry. Lobbyists can serve a very useful purpose.
• For me, coming to work every day has turned out to be exactly what I hoped it would be.
• It's Hard to Stay Mad When There's So Much Beauty in the World
• There's something very interesting about the way each individual actor approaches stuff.
• I dont play villainy. I wouldnt even know how to play it.
• No one’s personal life is in the public interest. It’s gossip, bottom line. End of story.
• [What's my favourite book?] It changes all the time.
• Secondarily, I think films that are driven by music also terrify studios.

Kevin Spacey Famous Quotes And Sayings

Clearly the success of the Netflix model, releasing the entire season of 'House of Cards' at once, proved one thing: The audience wants the control. They want the freedom. If they want to binge as they've been doing on 'House of Cards' and lots of other shows, we should let them binge. — Kevin Spacey

Secret Cinema has created a new way of experiencing film. The fusion of film and theatre allows for a much more powerful experience and adds an incredibly unique dimension for the audience. It certainly did for me. I was blown away — Kevin Spacey

We have learned the lesson that the music industry didn't learn. Give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price - and they'll more likely pay for it rather than steal it. — Kevin Spacey

I suppose the most important thing is to stay interested. It's very easy in life if you get to a place where you're successful to hit the same groove on the record player over and over again because it's safe. — Kevin Spacey

I'm supposed to convince you, for two hours, that I'm somebody else. Now if you know everything about my life, if you think you've got me figured out and you think you know all my dark secrets, how am I ever going to convince you that I'm somebody else? — Kevin Spacey

The legal profession, politics and acting are very closely tied: the whole point is to have an idea and get it across to a listener, whether it is one person or five thousand in a hall. — Kevin Spacey

I always remember is that no matter how good I might be in a movie, I'll never be any better. It's frozen. But in theatre I can be better tomorrow night, I can be better the night after that and I can be better in a week. The journey you go through as an actor is incredible. — Kevin Spacey

There are two things that have been happening over the last few decades in my opinion. First, there have been unbelievable, remarkable, pioneering advances in technology and, second, an equal amount of evolution in creativity. These two shifts are meeting at an intersection. — Kevin Spacey

If you haven't turned rebel by twenty you've got no heart; if you haven't turned establishment by thirty you've got no brains! — Kevin Spacey

It's the way I feel about acting. That we are given clues by a writer about someone's essence or persona and it's our job to try to figure out which of those clues are true, which of clues we decide to follow and which of those clues we think are red herrings, or only in the way another character thinks of that character. — Kevin Spacey

Am I now supposed to go on Oprah and cry and tell you my deepest, darkest secrets because you want to know? — Kevin Spacey

It's a great thriller or mystery, but on another level it's a film about the fact that, if you only look at a person through one lens, or only believe what you're told, you can often miss the truth that is staring you in the face. — Kevin Spacey

I'm not out there trying to get press for myself nor am I trying to convince anybody that I'm living any kind of a life. I'm actually trying to convince people: I don't want you to know what I'm living, because it's none of your business. — Kevin Spacey

It's much more interesting when you go to different places - make a left turn when nobody expects you to make a left turn, and make a right when nobody expects you to do that. — Kevin Spacey

Studios and networks who ignore either shift - whether the increasing sophistication of storytelling, or the constantly shifting sands of technological advancement - will be left behind. — Kevin Spacey

To look in the eyes of audiences and see the kind of naughty glee that they got with being on the inside, the audience becomes your co-conspirators. — Kevin Spacey

Directing a film was something I was yearning to do. I always wanted to see if I had the capacity to be a good storyteller. — Kevin Spacey

For kids growing up now, there's no difference watching 'Avatar' on an iPad or watching YouTube on TV or watching 'Game of Thrones' on their computer. It's all content. It's just story. — Kevin Spacey

I mean we all played as kids. You play games, you take on different characters, you imitate; the fun and the love of play has never left me. — Kevin Spacey

The audience has spoken. They want stories. They’re dying for them. They’re rooting for us to give the right thing. And they will talk about it, binge on it, carry it with them on the bus and to the hairdresser, force it on their friends, tweet, blog, Facebook, make fan pages, silly GIFs, and god knows what else about it.. — Kevin Spacey

I can't imagine that anyone in Hollywood is sitting around trying to decide what actor is good or right or qualified for a role and is being denied a role because of their political views. I don't think that's the way Hollywood works. We're not living in an era of blacklisting. — Kevin Spacey

There are times when you do a play when you are living in the character over a two-and-a-half-hour period or longer, and you come to the end of the night, and you can feel like you were hit by a truck. — Kevin Spacey

The characters created cannot just be a mouthpiece for the writer. When you look at a piece of writing, and it's genuine and it doesn't feel like every character is just a mouthpiece for the writer, but that they've been created in such a way that they're expressing an idea that a writer wants to get across, that's when a story succeeds. — Kevin Spacey

Theatre is alive and it is now, and then it's gone. — Kevin Spacey

Fortunately for me, I don't come from the school where you only measure success by how much money something makes or whether it has a big box-office weekend. I measure it by how much people actually participate in the process. — Kevin Spacey

Over the years, I've been trying to build a relationship with an audience. I've tried to maintain as much of a low profile as I could so that those characters would emerge and their relationship with audiences would be protected. — Kevin Spacey

I like being able to go to a local pub and have great food and particularly love pubs that welcome my dogs. — Kevin Spacey

My job is to interpret. I'm an interpreter. I can add things and bring unique qualities to the role that the writer may not have thought of, but someone else created the fundamental idea. — Kevin Spacey

[Washington, DC] feels like you're watching performance art. A lot of the time. I don't believe them, I don't believe what they say, I don't think they're being absolutely sincere. I think it's performance art. And most of them are bad actors. — Kevin Spacey

It takes stamina to get up like an athlete every single night, seven to eight performances a week, 20 weeks in a row. And there are many young performers who only learn their craft in the two minute bits it takes to film a scene. You never learn the arc of storytelling, the arc of a character that way. — Kevin Spacey

Exposure to the arts and culture is enormously valuable. — Kevin Spacey

I think I am a much better actor than I have allowed myself to be. — Kevin Spacey

Anyone with a internet connection and an idea can develop an audience — Kevin Spacey

To me, getting up every single night and trying to reach out to an audience, and trying to dig deeper and further in the play to serve the writer and to understand yourself in that context is how you continue to grow and learn. — Kevin Spacey

I think what we have seen in terms of gay teenagers committing suicide because of bullying is anguishing. I think young people, if they are feeling like they are confused, need to know that there are people to talk to and that there are places they can go and not feel alone. But I feel that they have just as many rights as I do to not be bullied. — Kevin Spacey

If you're lucky enough to have done well, then it's your responsibility to send the elevator back down. — Kevin Spacey

When the story is good enough, people can watch something three times the length of an opera. — Kevin Spacey

Games are advancing in terms of storytelling and trying to create a character, and its a brand new audience for me. — Kevin Spacey

As a producer or financier, you are going to go where you get the best bang for your buck. — Kevin Spacey

Meeting the person you are going to be playing is very unique. — Kevin Spacey

London is a very energising place to be. — Kevin Spacey

A couple of clues came my way of what I might be getting myself into when I sat down with a number of actors who had played Richard III in the past. And I was hoping of course, that one of them or all of them were gonna give me the magic key, the secret way in to play Richard III but none of them did that.But every one of them did say the following, "Be careful." — Kevin Spacey

Essentially, your voice is an instrument; its a muscle, and you have to treat it like a muscle, and so you have to work it. — Kevin Spacey

I think you need the failures to get the success. You learn more from that. — Kevin Spacey

The movies are not my first priority - the theater is. — Kevin Spacey

I'm not a writer. I marvel at writing. I am sometimes absolutely astounded when I read something and I think how in the world did that man or that woman sit down at a typewriter, a computer or a pen and an ink well, and seemingly have nothing come between their heart and that pen. — Kevin Spacey

Because my mother was in love with Bobby Darin, I grew up with his records playing in our house all the time. — Kevin Spacey

Sometimes its the crazy people who turn out to be not so crazy. — Kevin Spacey

And I certainly won't lay out areas of my life that I think are just private. — Kevin Spacey

Kids arent growing up with a sense of television as the aspirational place for their ideas. — Kevin Spacey

The 24 Hour Plays is a quite brilliant, exhilarating event for everyone concerned. — Kevin Spacey

Theres nothing like standing in a place and wanting nothing so much as to change but simply not being able to. — Kevin Spacey

The most important definition of an actor, the job of the actor, is to serve the writer, not yourself. Way too many actors serve themselves. — Kevin Spacey

It's not even about being negative. It's just being unsettled, unsatisfied, unfinished. — Kevin Spacey

Why not sit around a Beverly Hills pool collecting residual cheques? That is not the kind of life I want. — Kevin Spacey

Im attracted to things that are challenging and fun and interesting, and it certainly seems that audiences enjoy them as well. — Kevin Spacey

Netflix did it right and focused on all the things that have replaced the dumb, raw numbers of the Nielsen world - they embraced targeted marketing and 'brand' as a virtue higher than ratings. — Kevin Spacey

Have we become so celebrity-obsessed that there is no longer a difference between a character and an actor? I hope not. — Kevin Spacey

The story is everything, which means it's our job to tell better stories. — Kevin Spacey

When you know you have 1,000 people sitting on the edge of their seats in silence because of a shift that just happened on stage, there is no better feeling. — Kevin Spacey

What I do is interpret, not create. I may add elements and do something different. That is what is so incredible about theatre. Why do we love it that there are nine Hamletsor six King Lears over two years? We love to watch a different actor attack the same material. — Kevin Spacey

I find drinking really helps. — Kevin Spacey

In recent years we've seen an explosion of creative programming, and I think it represents a third golden age of television because the creators have more control over the story. The audience doesn't care about the platform. They care about the content. — Kevin Spacey

I'm a relatively ugly character who's done pretty damn well in film. — Kevin Spacey

It is not about whether you are an executive, a studio or a network. If you have a story or an idea you can build a following for it. — Kevin Spacey

If you're watching a film on your television, is it no longer a film because you're not watching it in a theatre? If you watch a TV show on your iPad, is it no longer a TV show? The device and the length are irrelevant; the labels are useless, except perhaps to agents and managers and lawyers, who use these labels to conduct business deals. — Kevin Spacey

I've never heard of a situation where, because somebody had a particular political belief, they didn't get a part. I think it's a bit of a myth. — Kevin Spacey

If you ignore the murdering and the conniving, Francis Underwood is an effective politician. — Kevin Spacey

Sometimes I'll be flipping through the channels and I'll see a movie I'm in. And I'll probably stop and think, 'Sure, I'll watch this.' — Kevin Spacey

I have never played a game in my life. — Kevin Spacey

I don't want to show deleted scenes. I don't like an audience looking at what the movie might have been - if it's in the movie, it's in the movie. — Kevin Spacey

The audience, the place youre in, has everything to do with how your performance goes. — Kevin Spacey

You learn every single day when youre running a company. You learn as you go. — Kevin Spacey

I couldnt imagine something asking as much of me as House Of Cards. Its a great warm-up for coming back to the screen. — Kevin Spacey

Im able to hang up the character with the costume at the end of the movie. — Kevin Spacey

Pushing the boundaries of what is expected of you is important to me. — Kevin Spacey

But I feel that I have a responsibility to help the film and I have relations with the studio and with those who put up the money so that I can tell a story that I believe in. — Kevin Spacey

I just want it to be better, I just want to be better, but this is very encouraging. — Kevin Spacey

If you look back through history in the United States, there have been very few landslide elections. Half the country always voted for someone else. — Kevin Spacey

People sometimes say, "Isn't it boring, isn't it always the same? It's the same lines." I go, "Well, do you play tennis? Because that's the best analogy I can give." If you go out eight times and play tennis eight times this week, yeah it's the same rules but it's a different game every time you're out on that court.And that's the best analogy I can come up with the theater. — Kevin Spacey

Audiences grew to like this duality of feeling, where youre both championing a character and youre revolted by them. — Kevin Spacey

Im always taken aback by things that are successful that I think are just crap, and then Im completely surprised when things I do end up being successful because you walk into things and you never know Its just really remarkable. — Kevin Spacey

Whether thats positive or not, people are talking about the Old Vic Theater again with passion and commitment and controversy and debate. — Kevin Spacey

Being an actor sometimes requires that you ask yourself questions youd rather not know the answers to. — Kevin Spacey

I've been intrigued by politics my whole life. And, yes, I am very close to the Clintons. I was a Hillary person until I was an Obama person. And she was a Hillary person, too, until she was an Obama one, evidently. — Kevin Spacey

You must find a way to express your ideas and compel your audience to react through the idea itself, and then figuring out what the best representative of that idea may be, and bringing it to life. — Kevin Spacey

The Old Vic has always been first and foremost an actors theatre, a home for great talent and memorable performances. — Kevin Spacey

I certainly identify with the role of mentor and, to some degree, maybe teacher. I do a lot of work with kids at the Old Vic. — Kevin Spacey

I've been on sets where things weren't relaxed because someone was creating tension for no reason. — Kevin Spacey

I want to bring theatre to a new generation, using the tools available to us, including taking it out to them on film and with new technology, but that is just so they can discover theatre. I want them to come in and sit in a theatre. This is the way to plant seeds. — Kevin Spacey

Life Lessons by Kevin Spacey

1. Kevin Spacey has taught us to always stay humble and be kind to those around us, no matter our successes.
2. He has also shown us that hard work and dedication will pay off in the end, and that we should never give up on our dreams.
3. Lastly, he has shown us that it is important to stay true to ourselves and to never let anyone else define who we are.