John Malkovich Play Quotations

There's no worse feeling in the world than realizing the play you've directed doesn't work.

You have to play your characters, not like them.

When you do a really good play, the audience and the performers are looking into the same looking glass, the same microscope. And the specimen they are looking at is human life and that's why I do it, that's why I like it.

You can't take a play someone has directed and do whatever you want with it.

I think probably when I was little, after my brother turned on me, I just had to play by myself or with myself. I've always done that. I think either it's some kind of weirdly competitive streak or it takes my mind off whatever's bothering me.

I don't mind what I play, really.

The theater is so disappointing, really, that it's hard to go again and again. It's just too heartbreaking. I'd rather watch football or play a game or read.