Ron Silver Quotes

I think you have an obligation to be an optimist. Because if you`re not, nothing will change.

I kind of have a dilettantish spirit about me.

The twentieth century has exhibited a barbarism and lack of respect for human life on a massive scale just about unknown before.

It`s not like I`m the most famous person in the world.

Nobody has a franchise on what is good.

I`ve seen people with a tremendous amount of educational background in the field not turn out to be terribly good actors, and I`ve seen people with no education in the field turn out to be people that I admire quite a bit.

It made me think about a whole area of human activity that was not really a concern to me before that, because I was involved in reading Chinese history, or languages, or whatever.

But some actors I have met possess an intelligence that I can only dream of. It`s about character, it`s about behavior. They understand things about people that I simply don`t see.

Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers.

Two, I actually learned a lot of things that served me very well when it came to repeating performances on stage, because it is a craft and you do need a technique for it.

Nothing gets a bigger laugh than when you refer to things like ethics or human rights.

If you don`t think you want to go on a train and read the paper every day and work from nine to six at night, there was something about the uncertainty when I was younger which was very attractive.

You have to think an awful lot about your motivations or people`s behavioral intentions or what their body language can indicate or what`s really going on or what makes people sometimes do, sometimes, the irrational things they do.

And, more than anything else, what I liked about it - which doesn`t work for all actors - was the reflective nature, the self-reflection.

I don`t even like to use the word relationship. I don`t know what it means.

Acting is not about knowing all this stuff; it`s about character.

I saw and I met a lot of people who were in the field. It also provided a context in which I came to respect what the actor did, because I saw how difficult it actually was to do.

Involvement in public affairs is a legitimate use of celebrity.

I think it`s good to meet smart people and talk.

In Europe, people in the arts are considered part of the intelligentsia; they are considered part of the elite.

But why should I run for office and lose what little influence I have?

I started taking acting classes because I had fooled around with it in college and I had received some encouragement and liked it.

Then I realized that to be really good at this requires a lot of energy and concentration and skill.

Too often in the past, U.S. leaders have forced Israel to pay the price for American strategic interests in the Middle East - through concessions in the peace process as well as passivity in the face of Iraqi attacks.

I was immature the way I handled the business. I saw myself as a tribune of the people.

I can`t talk about foreign policy like anyone who`s spent their life reading and learning foreign policy. But as a citizen in a democracy, it`s very important that I participate in that.

I kind of dwindled into acting.

What I liked about Clinton is what I like about Rudy, strange as that may sound: their approach to crime and family responsibility.

I do believe all actors are smart.

Anyone who devotes time and attention to what makes people tick, to me, is a smart person.

I just don`t get invited to the same dinner parties I used to like to go to.

If I don`t see my kids for six days, I start to get withdrawal pains.

I still think I`m going to do something else when I grow up.

For about the first ten years of my career, I wasn`t terribly motivated.

Isn`t the rationale, fundamentally, for democracy, that we`re going to get people of unequal abilities to ultimately make very important decisions?

I started getting jobs, and I thought it was going to be real easy.

I had no desire from an early age to be on the stage.

I`m a 9/11 Republican.