Quotes from Dustin Hoffman

I'd like to thank my parents for not practicing birth control.

I believe - though I may be wrong, because I'm no expert - that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil.

Well this is aptly called a junket, for both of us. I have never been to a house of prostitution, but I understand that you get in more than seven minutes.

Money is another pressure. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that there's a certain luxury in having no money. I spent ten years in New York not having it, not worrying about it. Suddenly you have it, then you worry, where is it going? Am I doing the right thing with it?

To have a successful marriage, a man must, on a fundamental level be scared shitless of his wife.

There is something unnatural about marriage. These two people are not going to be the same people in a few years. The trick is to live your own life while sharing the same space.

But I would reinvent myself if I could. As a sexy leading man! We all would like that, but I don't know how to.

I think there's always going to be some kind of bigotry or some kind of racism. There has to be, because people can't feel that they have any hero qualities unless there's someone beneath them.

A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution.

That's what we're all looking for, the place where the work leads us.

I wanted to find my limitations so I decided to do Shylock. And if I fail? I've never been afraid of that. I have other fears - doing bad work knowingly is the worst fear.

The Academy Awards are obscene, dirty . . . no better than a beauty contest.

It's true what they say about failure. You don't learn from success.

If you have this enormous talent, it's got you by the balls, it's a demon. You can't be a family man and a husband and a caring person and be that animal. Dickens wasn't that nice a guy.

I feel cheated never being able to know what it's like to get pregnant, carry a child and breast feed

The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk.