Jim Carrey Quotes

People need motivation to do anything. I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation.

For some reason I did something where I realized I could get a reaction. That was when I broke out of my shell at school, because I really didn’t have any friends or anything like that and I just kind of was going along, and then finally I did this zany thing, and all of a sudden I had tons of friends.

If I had never ventured beyond being a stand-up comic, then I would be sitting in my house today working on my Leonardo DiCaprio impression.

Morgan Freeman is so class. He’s so cool. He’s so scary.

I’ve never been one to sit back and go, ‘I’d better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don’t want to lose them.’

I just want to be myself.

It’s hard for anybody who‘s been with me not to feel starved for affection when I’m making love to my ideas. Maybe it’s not meant for me to settle down and be married.

Originality is really important.

I haven‘t been as wild with my money as somebody like me might have been. I’ve been very safe, very conservative with investments. I don’t blow money. I don’t have a ton of houses. I know things can go away. I’ve already had that experience.

I want to be the greatest actor that ever lived, frankly. I’d love that. But I don’t need to be. I just want to be here. That’s it.

I absolutely want to have a career where you make’em laugh and make’em cry. It’s all theater.

I think I could go away tomorrow. I’ve already accomplished something. It’s such a selfish business that sometimes I get sick of myself.

It was such a leap in my career when ‘Truman Show’ came along. It’s always been a long process for me insofar as recognition goes, but that’s OK because you appreciate it when it comes.

A lot of good love can happen in ten years.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

I really believe in the philosophy that you create your own universe. I’m just trying to create a good one for myself.

I refuse to feel guilty. I feel guilty about too much in my life but not about money. I went through periods when I had nothing, so somebody in my family has to get stinkin’ wealthy.

When the first big paycheque with ‘Dumb And Dumber‘ hit, I went: ‘Gosh, I wonder if this will affect my performance. Will I do a take and think, was that worth $7 million?’ But that never happened. If anything, it made me rebel against that thing when people who get rich start playing it safe.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Ever since I started to get recognition I’ve picked out certain fans and reverse-stalked them.

My focus is to forget the pain of life. Forget the pain, mock the pain, reduce it. And laugh.

I’m the first to admit this whole salary thing is getting out of control. In the final analysis, it’s still about the work.

Creative people don’t behave very well generally. If you’re looking for examples of good relationships in show business, you’re gonna be depressed real fast. I don’t have time for anything else right now but work and my daughter. She’s my first priority.

I’m very serious about no alcohol, no drugs. Life is too beautiful.

What I have in common with the character in ‘Truman’ is this incredible need to please people. I feel like I want to take care of everyone and I also feel this terrible guilt if I am unable to. And I have felt this way ever since all this success started.

I tend to stay up late, not because I’m partying but because it’s the only time of the day when I’m alone and don’t have to be performing.

I’ve tried everything. I’ve done therapy, I’ve done colonics. I went to a psychic who had me running around town buying pieces of ribbon to fill the colors in my aura. Did the Prozac thing.

I used to draw a lot. If my mother would ask me to do something else, I’d have a hairy conniption. I’d just go crazy.

My dad was like a stage mother he always pushed me to do what I wanted.

Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

I don’t care if people think I am an overactor, as long as they enjoy what I do. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter.

There was a time when people said, ‘Jim, if you keep on making faces, your face will freeze like that.’ Now they just say, ‘Pay him!’

I love playing ego and insecurity combined.

Life is an ordeal, albeit an exciting one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the good old days of poverty and obscurity.

I’ve arrived at the place if I’m not taking a career risk, I’m not happy. If I’m scared, then I know I’m being challenged.

My report card always said, ‘Jim finishes first and then disrupts the other students‘.

I got a lot of support from my parents. That’s the one thing I always appreciated. They didn’t tell me I was being stupid; they told me I was being funny.

I need privacy. I would think that because what I do makes a lot of people happy that I might deserve a little bit of respect in return. Instead, the papers try to drag me off my pedestal.

My upbringing in Canada made me the person I am. I will always be proud to be a Canadian.

My life is not unlike Truman’s. I can’t go anywhere.

I feel like I want to take care of everyone and I also feel this terrible guilt if I am unable to. And I have felt this way ever since all this success started.

I try to do something the audience might not have seen before. Like if I’m gonna kiss a girl I wanna kiss her like a girl has never been kissed. Like maybe I would kick her legs out from under her and catch her right before she hits the ground and then kiss her.

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what’s left?

Ya know what I do almost every day? I wash. Personal hygiene is part of the package with me.