Top 77 Paul Rudd Quotes

It’s not often that you get to play somebody that has absolutely no cynicism or is not judgmental in any way.

I laugh much more during takes than I do during real life. Maybe because you’re not supposed to. I’ve ruined many takes because I will lose it.

I’ve always loved David Letterman. There was an irreverence to his show that I remember, especially in ‘Late Night’ – it always seemed so fresh.

I’ve been friends with Elizabeth Banks since ‘Wet Hot American Summer.’

I would say, up until ‘Anchorman,’ I wasn’t any kind of household name or anything, but I wasn’t necessarily identified as much with being a comedian.

Puberty hit me pretty hard. All of a sudden, I woke up, and I had really curly hair.

Willie Nelson is the perfect person, it seems to me, to think about. Because something tells me that he operates on his own frequency.

There’s something great about the idea of working the land and living communally. That’s healthy. That’s good.

I don’t consider myself a comedian because I don’t really concern myself too much with jokes.

For a while, I tried to masquerade as somewhat of a hippie because I was under the impression that was the kind of guy girls would like. I was pretty unsuccessful because I liked the idea of camping more than actually camping. I did go to a Grateful Dead concert, but I was pretty bored.

I don’t feel like a dork, but I certainly have many moments of nerdism, and I embrace it wholeheartedly. I’ve always cottoned to that crowd more, anyway.

My parents were married my whole life until my father passed away a few years ago.

I wasn’t one of those kids who was like, ‘I want to be an actor.’ It wasn’t in my wheelhouse at all. I wasn’t from a family that did this or in a place where people did this.

I’d like to do something dramatic or a different kind of role, but I tend not to separate comedy and drama all that much.

Embarrassment and awkward situations are not foreign things to me.

I love straight guys that seem gay. I’m a little like that.

Humor is the most important thing in life. It trumps everything else, and it’s the only thing that helps me deal with everything else.

Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris – they’re both genius.

I always try and hold to that saying, ‘I want to work on things I’d want to see.’ The vast majority, that’s been true.

Early on, I decided I would see if I could make a career work on my own terms.

In eighth grade, I wore a tie to school every day. I didn’t own jeans. But it wasn’t a granola thing, it was really more of an INXS thing.

I think Ellen DeGeneres is just hysterical.

I find many of the people that I’ve worked with to be incredibly funny.

I used to live next door to a farm, so every day for awhile, I used to walk over and fed the cows, when I was in school. This was weird because I lived in sort of a subdivision, but this one holdout in our neighborhood in Kansas still had a farm.

I really tried for a while to go with the Adam Ant look.

It’s nice to be in anything that anybody sees or likes. If it’s something that has lasted, it’s great.

Growing up, if I had been given any advice – bad or good – I probably wouldn’t have been able to act on it regardless. I wasn’t shy, but I’d get nervous. I got a little more confident later in high school when I realized I could get girls to pay attention to me by making them laugh.

I went to college and studied theater; I went to a theater conservatory. I live in New York because I wanted to do plays and still do plays.

Theater is the most enriching and thrilling thing to do as an actor.

I’m a huge David Wain fan. He’s one of my best friends now, but he just makes me laugh continually, much to the annoyance of his wife.

To me, some of the funniest movies would be probably categorized in the dramatic genre, and likewise, some of the most dramatic films, or films that have the most dramatic moments, are in comedies.

I’ve been naked in a lot of my movies. There’s something inherently funny about the naked male body, particularly mine.

At my core, I’m a Midwesterner.

Awkwardness is such a gold mine for comedy.

I think I used comedy as a mechanism: if I could make the other kids laugh, I wouldn’t get beaten up or teased as much.

I’m a big fan of not working.

I was always in new schools and had British parents, which was not the norm, and I think there was also… I’m not particularly religious, but I was born Jewish, and I always felt like the outsider because I wasn’t Christian or Catholic.

Looking back, I’m really happy with the choices I’ve made in my career. I know for a fact I could be wealthier. Who knows, maybe I could be more successful, maybe not. I don’t know. But just about every single thing I’ve ever done I’ve gone into with the right intentions, and that goes a long way.

Sometimes you read a script, and it’s like, ‘You’ll improv, and this is just a blueprint of what the scene could be,’ and that’s never a good sign. And it’s never encouraging as an actor to take that on, really.

Sometimes I think I’m funny. But then sometimes I see myself, and I think, ‘There’s somebody trying to be funny.’

Anybody that’s going on a road trip and doesn’t really want to get into a myriad of snacks is probably no one you want to get in the car with.

I can, and do, walk the street. No one bothers me or anything, because most people wouldn’t know who I am.

There’s a very specific thing you can do to get in magazines. I’m much happier to just show up and do the job. I haven’t taken the active approach to making myself a star. I haven’t been in a blockbuster.

I don’t have an agenda where I do a comedy and say, ‘I have to do a drama next,’ or ‘I am looking for an action movie now.’

I’m not good at small talk. I’m really not. I’m not that great at any talk.

I’m surprised that I get to be in the same room with half the people that I’m working with.

My wife is very stealth-funny. She’ll come out with something when I’m not expecting it, and it’ll just kill me.

I used to ask my mom to try and shave my head on the sides to give me a receding hairline because Adam Ant had one.

As a kid, I know that most of my parents’ friends were because my mom made friends with them, and my dad went along. I know a lot of dads who do that. I think it just starts to happen with guys. In the case of my father, he was probably just too busy reading books about Titanic.

I’m, uh, not proud to say it – I play fantasy baseball. It’s, like, the dorkiest thing ever.

If someone made fun of me, I’d be bummed out. But I’d play it like I thought it was hilarious.

I know a lot about the Titanic. My dad was a Titanic expert.

Growing up, I was certainly drawn to comedy, but my goal was just to be as well-rounded an actor as possible. I really liked Daniel Day-Lewis, and I thought, ‘Oh, he’s a good guy to try and emulate.’

I used to love, love Steve Martin. I still do… I would get these albums, and I would just listen to them all the time. I would stand in my room and pretend that I was delivering his comedy routine… And I don’t know if that planted any kind of seed, but I wasn’t raised going to the theatre.

I grew up in the Midwest, where people seem to be friendly and nice to one another. There is less stress than in some of the other cities.

Alex Smith is – I think he is a winner, and he’s a smart quarterback, and I’m a fan of his.

I don’t find the characters I’ve played funny. The characters are actually taking their situations very seriously.

Anything traumatic in my life I’ve always dealt with through jokes and comedy.

There is a major part of who I am that does not feel like the alpha male.

I grew up in a lot of different places, mostly in Kansas, I really started thinking seriously about acting in high school; I just did it better than most of the other activities in school.

I treasure laughs more than anything; they’ve helped me in life the most.

My parents raised me to treat people the way you would want to be treated and to be polite. Sometimes, when I get nervous or insecure, I might overcompensate and might not be totally true to what I am feeling inside. But I get nervous and maybe too smiley and polite.

A lot of people say, ‘What’s the worst part about being an actor?’ And the worst part is that you’re not a musician.

I think there’s something great and generic about goldfish. They’re everybody’s first pet.

Even more than getting married or having kids, I found losing a parent is what thrusts you into adulthood. For me it was. That was when the Earth tilted on its axis, and there was a paradigm shift, and I felt like a different person.

I think that I identify with my role in pretty much everything I have tried to do. I try to find something that I can understand about each character’s behavior.

It’s insane but it’s a great insane.

Fear is what makes comedy funny.

People do still mention ‘Clueless’ to me. I’m proud and happy that I was in it.

My definitions of comedy, drama, and straight man are all blurry for me. I don’t think of it in those terms.

While there are so many great things in my life, you get older, and you have responsibilities. And things happen, like my dad dying – things that are tough to shake off. And there are things I’m still trying to figure out.

I can talk about sports and stuff, but I have a season pass for ‘Antiques Roadshow’ on my TiVo.

There are many great writers out there and, actually, great scripts. The problem is – and this is what I’ve always felt, even when I got out of school and started reading scripts – the really smart, character-driven stuff tends to be smaller films, and they just don’t get made.

The truth is, there are so many terrific places in New York because it’s the greatest city in the world, and there are so many fascinating places to see that, frankly, it’s humbling.

Comedy-wise, I think Chris Elliott is one of the funniest people.

Who knows what critics are thinking? I know that you make more of a name for yourself, make more of an interesting review, if you’re kind of mean-spirited.

Personally – and I don’t mean to brag – my jokes have been falling flat for most of my life.