Michael Stuhlbarg quotes:

My mom and my dad are ebullient people, and I think I carry that with me.

Film, for me, has been a process of learning on the job.

Things never go the way you expect them to. That's both the joy and frustration in life. I'm finding as I get older that I don't mind, though. It's the surprises that tickle me the most, the things you don't see coming.

I was thrown into a community production of 'Bye Bye Birdie' or something when I was a kid. I wanted to just build the sets, but I wasn't allowed to just build the sets unless I auditioned for the play. So I auditioned for the play and was thrown into the chorus. During the course of that I fell in love with it, and I never really turned back.

I've found in my own life, if you try to struggle against what the universe is telling you, you set yourself up for more of a battle.

I was raised in a reform synagogue. I think we all bring with us a sense of when hard things happen to us, we find ourselves asking questions of why are these things happening to me at this time in my life. I think in that sense, there's a certain resonance that I carry. It's more of a spiritual resonance as opposed to particularly of Judaism.

Most of the people in New York are very often from somewhere else.

I think the theater work and the on-camera work feed off each other. My theater work has become more simple, and my on-camera work has become more energized or more spontaneous.

The bitterest truth is better than the sweetest lie.

A miracle is something that seems impossible but happens anyway.

I love a sense of humor, I love intelligence, I love specificity, I love surprises. I'm inspired to get out of bed in the morning and fill my day with good things.

I wanted to be a cartoonist. I was one of those kids who sat around and drew in my room all the time.

I've done a lot of theater work that has been quite diverse. I feel very fortunate to have had many different people think of me in many different ways. So, as an actor that's all you - all I want is diversity. So far in film and television work I have done has not been as diverse, and I hope it grows to be.