Oscar Isaac quotes:

A personal game-changer was when Ridley Scott cast me as King John, the King of England, for 'Robin Hood.'

I think that when you decide to dedicate yourself to creative endeavors and surround yourself with people who are creative, you very quickly learn how hard it is to survive doing those kinds of things, not to mention make a living at them.

I grow up in the States, in Miami, but I was born in Guatemala, and my father's Cuban, and in 'Body of Lies,' I played an Iraqi.

My family are huge 'Star Wars' fans.

A lot of very successful businessmen share some of these sociopathic traits - a lack of empathy, seeing people as commodities, projecting an air of sincerity when everything is actually calculated.

I'm so bored by business and money.

I had an audition where Josh Brolin was pelting me with his personality. I didn't get the part.

Every frame of a Coen brothers movie is filled with history and meaning, and the deeper you go, the deeper you get. That's why their movies stand up particularly well to repeated viewing and investigation.

The very first proper play I did was 'Godspell,' and I played the guitar for it, and I had a small part in a high school play. And before that, in sixth grade, I wrote a musical about Noah's ark.

I think that's why often people in creative fields can feel so alone is because there's a constant third eye, that constant watcher.

I feel like being an artist and being an activist are separate things; I know some people who feel very differently.

My dad was a doctor, but he was just always, like, going from hospital to hospital for some reason.

I always like teaser trailers because they don't give too much away, you know? They give just a flavor of what the thing is.

What you wear can be such an indicator of so many things. You know, how you feel, how you want others to perceive you. So, that is an absolutely essential part of building a character.

I come from a place where everything about me, even my body language, is saying: I mean you no harm. I smile, I laugh. Basic stuff for most people.

I think it's good to be a little more fearless in saying what you feel. In not being scared of the repercussions of that.

I think it's the director's prerogative, not the studio's, to go back and reinvent a movie.

Getting a record deal is a meaningless thing now.

I started playing guitar at, like, 12 or 13 and just rock bands mostly. I had a punk rock band and hard core bands and all that.

I'm very happy to have the heritage that I do, but I'm not wanting to be 'the Latino actor.' I just want to be 'an actor.'

I've been fortunate to be working mostly right out of school. Every year, there was a little something, and it kept the confidence going. It's about confidence and the belief.

Our morality is based on so many factors: of where we were born, who we were born to, what values were instilled in us, what values we chose, the way that our lives have shaped us. That dictates so much of what we assume is our morality, and also the culture, all of these things.

You can't try to be authentic. You either are or you aren't.

I think romantic passion is wanting a little something in return.

I was in bands, but they were punk bands, and you plug in the guitars, you turn them up really loud, you've got four or five other people on stage with you, you've got some protection from when they throw lighters. You can always hide behind the lead singer or the bass player.

When I moved to New York, I had to let my band know that I couldn't play anymore, and that was difficult to leave that behind.

The better I am at observing moments in life, the better I'll be at showing them in my acting.

I think for some reason we're conditioned in movies that the protagonist must be heroic or redeemable in some way, whereas in theater, that's not a necessary.

I don't know why people are so obsessed with finding out stuff before the movie comes out. It's so much more fun to just go. I mean, I don't do that. I don't go looking for stuff that I'm interested in, you know, to try and find out pictures and what the movie's about. It's so much more fun to be surprised.

I actually started playing in little cafes around New York, and I have a lot of good friends of mine who are musicians who are struggling in New York.

What's funny in 'The Mayor of MacDougal Street' is how Dave Van Ronk talks a lot about the time and how exciting it was and how electric it was.

Coen brothers movies are not always what life looks like but it's definitely what life feels like.

If you can find a way that your principles are actually the strategically smartest thing to do, you've kind of figured it out.

I was interested in the war part of 'Star Wars,' so I started reading about what it's like to go to war, what that does to you psychically, about the adrenaline and the rush.

My dad always played a lot of music, so I heard him playing all the time, and then I decided that I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I got an acoustic and started taking lessons. I wanted to be able to shred like Yngwie Malmsteen.

The self-made man that some people believe is a myth? It could be, because you do it on the backs of other people.

There's very few geniuses that come and revolutionize everything. For the rest of us that want to be artists and have something to say, it's a lot of work and a lot of luck.

With Shakespeare, there's no subtext; you're speaking exactly what you're thinking constantly.

I really just like characters who you don't know where they stand for a long while. It's like people. You hang out with them for 10 years, and then all of a sudden they do something, and you say, 'Who are you?' That's more interesting. In life and on-screen.

I guess 'Scarface' was the Cuban Al Pacino.

That first play I did in New York, Rogelio Martinez's 'When It's Cocktail Time in Cuba,' I played a young Fidel Castro.

My dad was a huge Bob Dylan fan, so we listened to his music, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, and all that kind of stuff.

I like being like a chameleon who transforms himself with each role.

I grew up in a very devoutly Christian home.

I wanted to shred, so I learned classical guitar.

Max Minghella is a very close friend of mine, and I talk to him regularly.

The first movie I can remember seeing in the theater was 'Return of the Jedi.' I can remember seeing Darth Vader's helmet come off. The shock of that moment.

Jessica Lange was my biggest crush when I was a kid.

I played guitar and bass. I didn't do much vocals, although I did have one band where I was the lead singer. But that was when I was in college.

A movie set is like a petri dish for neuroses, you know? It's just, like, egos and weird personalities and, more than anything, fear.

Humans are mutants, everything's a mutant - things that evolve.

I've done movies I'm very proud of, but there's always a sense of: 'Come see this shiny new car!' The question I hate the most is: 'Why should people see it?'

I remember the first time my mind was blown by an actor was Tim Curry, because I loved 'Clue' when I was a kid, and then I was watching the movie 'Legend,' and the Devil suddenly smiles, and I was like, 'It's the same guy!' It was a total Keyser Soeze moment.

'Cool' is detached and emotionally cool. My instinct is to battle anything that seems overly cool.

Anybody who dedicates himself to exploring the human condition, there's always a detached eye that's watching. In any situation, a little part of me is observing it, to see if there are any raw materials to create something else later.

Mojave' is a very wild, throwback film with these two dudes going after each other.

I've never been much of a guitarist. I mean, I've played forever, but I was always more of a rhythm kind of guy. I don't read music.

Being someone with Latin roots, so many doors are constantly closed for you because people put you in a category, and the thing I've always wanted to avoid is categorisation.

It's nice to create a character, not just within two scenes, but within the journey of a whole movie. It's fun to do that.

When I'm creating a character, I don't see it so much as playing someone else as just playing a specific part of myself under certain circumstances.

It'd be crazy to say just because an artist is not successful that means he's not talented. I don't think anybody really believes that, but sometimes it feels that way.

If it was never new and it never gets old, then it's a folk song

The hardest things to do in any art is to risk failure and put yourself out on the line.

I'm definitely someone that's private. I've never been interested in celebrity.

Early on - certainly in acting - you really have to take whatever you can get. So I understand well how difficult it can be to be in this position where people are just not hearing what you're trying to say or are saying. I recognize that.

To be able to shut off your emotions drastically, I think that the only way you can do that is if you have some of sociopathic qualities.

I've written a lot of music, so to be able to put that together and play some shows around the country and elsewhere - that would really be a fun thing to do.

I've listened to Dylan my entire life. My dad was a huge Bob Dylan fan, so we listened to his music, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, and all that kind of stuff. It opened up a whole world of this music that I'm now obsessed with.

I get attached to things: I wear the same jeans for a year.

There's a reason why actors are always dying to work with the Coens. They just set the stage for you to do their best work.

I would always find a way to blow the deal and I'm not sure why. I think there was part of me that wasn't comfortable with monetizing the music and getting involved with royalties and all that kind of stuff.

There's very few people - like Shakespeare - who, no matter what, were gonna do what they did. For the rest of us, there's a lot of events that have to happen in order for things to end up the way they are.

What's most interesting about trying to figure out AI is the questions that it forces you to ask about the nature of consciousness.

The performances had to be live. When you play it back, you can see if the hands aren't really doing the right thing, and then the whole magic falls apart.

The superhero aesthetic is all about the human form and showing the body, whether they be female or male.

The idea of not getting a gun is not because I'm afraid of guns, it's not because I think guns are wrong, it's because it's impractical, it's stupid and it's exactly what they want me to do.