Bill Murray

Bill Murray: (In a 2004 interview with Blackfilm.com) Making movies is far more dangerous than people appreciate.

Bill Murray: (Reflecting on character development in his acting career) I've liked most of the characters I've played, but writing-wise they weren't all finished.

Bill Murray: (In a 1999 interview for BNet Magazine) I really believe an actor's job is to serve.

Bill Murray: (Speaking at the Columbia University School of the Arts 2000 graduation) I have a degree-from high school. But I am a [expletive deleted] millionaire....I just sort of got into acting to get out of the house....My mother was driving me nuts....And I stayed with it because I found that the more fun I had doing it, the better I did....If you have fun and don't become envious, you can do this art thing; you can get art done.

Bill Murray: (From his autobiography) Golf is megadoses of humility.

Bill Murray: (From his autobiography) To me, the scariest words in all of golf are, "It's a straight putt."

Bill Murray: (Speaking at a 1999 booksellers convention about his book) And in order to give you a feeling for the book that I've written, I have come completely unprepared.

Bill Murray: (on award acceptance speeches) Why would you get up there and bore people? I never have figured that out. These people are supposedly in the entertainment industry, and they finally get up there to that podium and they become the most boring people in the world.

Bill Murray: I'm over the Oscar thing. I feel that if you really want an Oscar, you're in trouble. It's like wanting to be married - you'll take anybody. If you want the Oscar really badly, it becomes a naked desire and ambition. It becomes very unattractive. I've seen it. The nice thing is that I'm over here in Europe making a movie and so I don't need to worry about it.

Bill Murray: The truth is, anybody that becomes famous is an ass for a year and a half. You've got to give them a year and a half, two years. They are getting so much smoke blown, and their whole world gets so turned upside down, their responses become distorted. I give everybody a year or two to pull it together because, when it first happens, I know how it is.

Bill Murray: I'm a nut, but not just a nut.

Bill Murray: I don't have a problem talking about my work, but I don't make a habit of talking about myself. There are people who are obsessed with information about my life, what clothes I'm wearing and what my exercise regime is. I'm not interested in that.

Bill Murray: The government can destroy wealth, but it cannot create wealth, which is the product of labor and management working with creation.

Bill Murray: I think all phases of one's career are serious if you take it seriously no matter if you are doing high profile dramatic pieces or not.

Bill Murray: In Japan, you have no idea what they are saying and they can't help you either. Nothing makes any sense. They're very polite, but you feel like a joke is being played on you the entire time you're there.

Bill Murray: I think that the online world has actually brought books back. People are reading because they're reading the damn screen. That's more reading than people used to do.

Bill Murray: The studios don't seem to foster good writing. They're not so interested in that, but they're more interested in what worked most recently. They're definitely very serious about making money and that's not a wrong thing, but you don't have to make money the same way all the time.

Bill Murray: I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'try being rich first'. See if that doesn't cover most of it. There's not much downside to being rich, other than paying taxes and having your relatives ask you for money, but when you become famous, you end up with a twenty-four hour job.

Bill Murray: People only talk about what a joyous experience it is, but there is terror; your life, as you know it, is over. It's over the day that child is born. It's over and something completely new starts.

Bill Murray: I don't know how this guy knew how much money i was making. I didn't know how much money i was making.

Bill Murray: I think all phases of one's career are serious if you take it seriously no matter if you are doing high profile dramatic pieces or not.

Bill Murray: The government can destroy wealth, but it cannot create wealth, which is the product of labor and management working with creation.

Bill Murray: I don't have a problem talking about my work, but I don't make a habit of talking about myself. There are people who are obsessed with information about my life, what clothes I'm wearing and what my exercise regime is. I'm not interested in that.

Bill Murray: Awards are meaningless to me and I have nothing but disdain for anyone who actively campaigns to get one.

Bill Murray: There are so many people taking credit for this that I don't know where to begin; for writing a film that was so good that everybody in this room says, 'That lucky son of a b*tch: It could have been me'.

Bill Murray: (Murray has made more than forty movies and there's still no big prize in sight. Comedy, however well done, is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to awards. He knows it. So do Steve Martin, Jim Carrey and Mike Myers): Even Charlie Chaplin knew it. Laughter and the lighter moments of life always seem easy to deliver. I don't expect those giving out the awards to understand.

Bill Murray: Just the very thought of someone my age going to visit old girlfriends had instant appeal. Even women think, 'That would be interesting'. Not comfortable, but interesting. It is not a comfortable film at any point.

Bill Murray: Now that I'm mature ... yet still somehow childlike, I can't really let it roll like that any more, but I've certainly met different women who have attracted me and you could make a case that even if you're married to your high-school sweetheart, every day should be like falling in love again.

Bill Murray: As far as the consumer is concerned, they think it's a stand-by ticket where you have to sit in the back by the toilet.

Bill Murray: Iraq has a lot of critical needs. It's got to come up with budgetary resources to finance health care, education and other important public services. Clearly, the reduction of petroleum subsidies is an emotional issue.

Bill Murray: I think a secure profession for young people is history teacher because in the future, there will be so much more of it to teach.

Bill Murray: I bet Mafia kids get bummed when they find out the tooth fairy doesn't take other people's teeth or when they find out there's no horse-head fairy at all.

Bill Murray: You really don't throw a football with your arm, you throw with your legs. You have to have good balance and a good base.