Rob Lowe quotes:

In acting, there's a type of courage you're recognized for all the time. You lose 100 pounds and play a guy with AIDS, and you get rewarded. But, in life, doing what is courageous is quiet, and no one knows about it. Courage is someone making sacrifices for their family or making selfless decisions for what they hope or feel.

Tom Ford, who is my all-time favourite, once said to me, 'Here's the thing about dress shirts, Rob. You need white, and you need black.' 'What about blue,' I asked. He said, 'Have you ever seen Cary Grant in a blue dress shirt?'

I'll never forget one of those things that my father said to me. My father said: 'You know what? We have had so many amazingly positive experiences that we would have never had because you're famous. We can stand to have a couple negatives ones, too.'

After my parents' divorce when I was 4, I spent weekends with my dad before we finally moved to California. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was incapable of enjoying the day's activities, of being in the moment, because I was already dreading the inevitable goodbye of Sunday evening.

I look at it like this: that if Shakespeare were alive today, he would have written two or three plays about the Kennedy family, and actors would traditionally play JFK like they Hamlet or King Lear. They just would. I mean, people have played JFK, and they'll play him long after I have.

My son Matthew's beloved dog is a Jack Russell. His name is Buster. Matthew picked him as a puppy, when he was tiny himself.

I learned to focus on what's real rather than imagined; on not letting feelings drive the bus; on being courageous and honest; on putting my total effort into something and not worrying about the result.

In spite of being professionally gregarious, in my nonpaid hours I'm a bit of a hermit. After being around a crew of fifty people for twelve hours a day on a film set, I really like my alone time, and as always, I abhor small talk.

I never get bored talking about themes dealing with ambition, leadership and what it means to be an American. I love that stuff. I just love it. I've loved it ever since I was on 'The West Wing.'

I've never met a funny person who wasn't smart. I've met a lot of dramatic people who were stupid. But I've never met a funny person who wasn't smart.

David Blum burned a lot of bridges. He burned people early in their careers. He took on the wrong people, though. He's not Hunter Thompson or Tom Wolfe, he's David Blum living in a cheap flat.

I've said before that the common perception that all good actors should be good liars is exactly the opposite; only bad actors lie when they act.

The challenge as a parent is letting your kids fail in the right ways because that's where we do most of our learning.

Sun Valley is one of my favorite spots.

Comedies always need to be provocative and catch your attention in a way that dramas don't have to.

The first shooter video game stuff which - look, admittedly, I missed that generationally, so it's not a thing for me. I've never played them. I don't really get it. My kids do.

For me, the battle is finding the balance between wanting to spend time with my boys and then having enough perspective to still be the disciplinarian and, like, not be in the best friend business.

By making more people aware of lymphoma, Worldwide Lymphoma Awareness Day hopes to save lives by increasing early diagnosis and suitable treatment.

As an actor and a fledgling director, I'm used to making snap decisions that I'll have to live with.

Oh my God, I love rehab! I highly recommend it.

Being in a successful marriage is no different than being cast in a successful movie. It's all about who you pick; in that first moment, did you pick the right person? I think you need to pick somebody who's more interested in being married than in getting married.

I only pray when it suits my own needs. I'm not proud about that.

I love anything by Joan Didion. Incidentally, she was one of the local moms when I was growing up in Point Dume. She always reminded me a little bit of my mother, so I feel a great affinity. I love the precision of Didion's writing. There's a construction and a craftsmanship to her sentences that's imbued with so much emotion.

I had had some successes in the '90s, always made money, but the truth was I was like a man pushing a boulder up a hill. A huge, heavy, difficult boulder made up of some career mistakes, projects that didn't meet expectations, and twenty years of being a known quantity.

For guys, I don't think you're ever ready... I don't think you wake up and go, 'You know, today's the day I'm going to get married. By God, I'm ready. My house is in order, and it is time.'

I have other obligations now - the show, my family, my life... though I know that without my sobriety I wouldn't have any of those things.

Before you could actually have face-lifts, they would pull your skin around the back of your head with rubber bands, where they would tape it. And then you'd have to wear a wig over it to hide the rubber bands. It was not the most comfortable.

It's funny what actors take issue with. Some won't do parts where animals are in jeopardy; some won't ever play anyone remotely unlikable - 'Heroes only, please.' Some won't do violence. I have no such qualms.

I've been around for so long, people have their perceptions of me: good, bad or indifferent.

There's this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can't be in pain or they can't have rough lives or be deep or interesting.

Things that I consider bad qualities, I always try and figure out where they are coming from. I don't consider ambition to be a bad one. It's served me very well in my life. Very well.

My dad is an attorney. I've always been interested in it. My sons are probably going to law school.

I had long ago become a creation, a public image made to be consumed, piled on top of a precarious shell of a little boy wanting to be loved.

Matthew Lowe is one of the great water men that I know. He's a surfer, a great water polo player. I think he's half fish.

It's a little bit of a 'if you can't beat 'em - join 'em' mentality for me when I think about Twitter.

The minute you start making calculations about what people will think of you as a person based on your work as an actor, you're on the road to becoming a bad one.

To be counter to the culture, you are by definition willfully and actively ignoring the culture, i.e., reality.

I like the tradition of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances and how they react to events which force them to be heroic in a way that is not in their natures.

I have been looking forward to this age of my life for a long time. In my twenties, I marked the days on the calendar - I was sick of playing high-school kids.

Like most guys, I don't come to beauty regimes naturally. I'm dragged kicking and screaming by the best in the world.

Of the many horrors of divorce, the most egregious is that it robs a kid of the best of both worlds. Dads can do many things that even the best moms can't, and vice versa.

I am the guy dressing up in, you know, the caveman outfit for the kids' birthday parties.

My thing is personal freedoms: freedoms for the individual to love whom they want, do with what they want. In fact, I want the government out of almost everything.

I loved fun. I spent my whole life in search of fun. I have not given up that part of myself.

I would've loved Jack Kennedy. I would've loved to have campaigned for him and supported him. I wish there were more like him today.

I love acting so much that I don't want to give that up.

My deep dark secret is that I was a nerd in school. I liked the theater. I liked to study. I wasn't very good at sports.

When I hear that I realize how quickly time passes and how everybody goes on their journeys and they're always unbelievable and they never go where you think they're going to take you and, quite frankly, it also makes me feel a little old.

I like all of John Carpenter's movies. 'The Thing' is my favorite.

We always reminisce about how everyone tried to get Diane Lane's attention, to very little success.

Individuals usually do a better job than the government.

I always wanted that house where everybody wants to go, full of energy, dogs, music, fun.

I have a lot of great memories, but I can't imagine anything more exciting than the life I have now.

If you are worried about what people think of you, you should go into politics. Real actors take chances.

I didn't go to Ivy League schools. I dropped out of college to go into movies.

My two sons are the most important things in the world to my wife and I - they are what I build my world around.

I am terrible with people's names.

I don't flip. I don't even dive into a pool - straight cannonball for me. No, thanks.

Directors are not worried about casting beautiful women, but they are not sure that they want to cast great-looking men. My looks have prevented people from seeing my work.

I like the way you can circumvent the media gatekeepers and go right to the people. That's my favorite thing about Twitter.

Fame is not a natural condition for human beings.

The '90s were a time of building for me. Building a life that was sober, drained of harmful, wasteful excess and manufacturing in its place a family of my own.

I'd love to serve my country. I would love it.

The highest levels of fame in the entertainment business are geared toward keeping the artist disconnected, disinterested and continuing to make product and not developing any sort of 'normal life.'

The cast of 'Parks & Rec' is just a group of unbelievably nice, humble, down to earth, hilarious friends.

I think part of maturity is knowing who you are.

I am still in love with my wife.

I - you know, I loved politics more as a younger man.

I'm a true centrist: my beliefs put me in the middle... You know what happens to people who drive in the middle of the road? They get run over.

Guys are really lucky. We become our authentic selves the older we get.

The first private space of my own wasn't a dorm room; it was a hotel room in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

JFK is a role I've always dreamt of playing.

The president of the United States can't even fire his chef. I'm not kidding.

I wouldn't go back on my old days, though; everybody needs to have their wild years. It's just a question of when and I'd rather have had them early than be doing it as a mid-life crisis type thing.

My life and the lives of many across the world have been deeply affected by lymphoma.

When you're writing personal stories, you have to be totally uncompromising - to the extent that you can be - about yourself. I know that if I am uber-uncompromising with myself, that gives me some latitude to write about others.

I try to be authentically who I am.

Malibu was a wellspring of counterculture group think.

Can someone explain the vitriol whenever Ayn Rand comes up? 'Atlas' is the greatest motivator for the individual that I can imagine.

I liked being a teenager, but I would not go back for all the tea in China.

The '80s were about trying to establish myself as an actor with a career. And being a teenager enjoying the fruits of being successful with lots of what I think is appropriate for that age.

I am the guy dressing up in, you know, the caveman outfit for the kids birthday parties.

There are so many family dinners you can do. I eventually had to go to them and say, 'Look, I don't do spatula work. I don't do scenes with oven mitts. If you're looking for that, you've got the wrong guy. I'm not doing scenes about casseroles. It's not happening.

Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census.

I don't look back with any bitterness, though there are a couple of judgment calls and some '80s hairdos that I'd like to do over.

So I came to the realization: Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life.

Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself. I don't put it on a platform. I don't campaign about it. It's just something that works for me. It enabled me to really connect with another human being - my wife, Sheryl - which I was never able to do before.

Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself.

Any time an opportunity scares you that much, you should seriously consider saying yes.

Belonging to one party is acceptable. But my days of just ticking the party box are long over. I judge the candidates for who they are.

I don't like being taken for granted anywhere in life. I don't want my vote taken for granted.

I'm a sportsman, you know, and I shoot skeet, and I grew up in the Midwest, so that's a part of my culture.

My issue isn't about physical aging; my issue is about wanting to remain vigorous and youthful in my spirit.

I have had a lot of blessed, interesting things happen to me and have bumped up against some amazing people.

My roles in comedies from 'Austin Powers' to 'Tommy Boy' to 'Wayne's World,' were sort of comedic 'straight man' parts. My character on 'Parks & Recreation' is the comic relief in a comedy. To play a character that appears strictly for laughs is sort of new for me and really fun.

I wish I was a more religious person. I really admire Martin Sheen for his Catholicism. It's such a bedrock. I wish I had that in my life.

Cannes is a little bit like French wine. There are certain years that people prefer over others.

I've been on TV a long time, and I've never had a catch phrase.

Getting married isn't going to make your relationship better. It's just a ceremony.

My hopes and aspirations haven't changed since I started in this business. They've been to be able to play drama, to be able to play comedy, to be able to play leading men, and to be able to play character roles. I have no other aspirations in this regard.

One of the interesting things about Twitter is looking how famous people choose to use it. Take someone like Steve Martin, who I follow: it's all sorts of comic gems, nothing private, nothing personal - all jokes. Other celebrities are overtly personal - like Charlie Sheen. I do a mix of observations and updates.

My greatest regret at the passing of America-hating strongman Hugo Chavez is that he didn't live long enough to party with Dennis Rodman.

Can we understand - just for the record, we do need the government for a lot of big ticket items.

The Kennedys are our royals.

When I was filming 'The Outsiders,' my idea of success was getting the next Martin Scorsese movie.

Somewhere in my callow, misspent youth, I was smart enough to marry my best friend.

I have a friend who is very successful in business, and his motto is, 'Don't do what you can do. Do what only you can do.' First of all, you have to know what your specific, unique gift is and then you do that... every actor does that but every once in a while an actor plays a part that only they can play.

I've had years of psychiatry, and I ask about every six months - it's sort of like getting your oil checked - I ask, 'I'm not an actual narcissist, am I?' The learned men of psychiatry assure me that I meet none of the medical criteria.

Marriage is becoming sort of fake. It's almost like a handbag. Everybody wants the newest, greatest and latest. It becomes an event, and it's definitely a status symbol in our society. I'm not saying it shouldn't be; it absolutely should be - but you shouldn't be focusing on that.

Every relationship has its complications.

I made a conscious effort to focus on television so I could stay in Los Angeles, so I wasn't on a location all over the world doing movies.

Some actors specialize in shooting weapons and punching people. Some have the market on playing buffoons cornered, others specialize in roles that require heavy makeup or outrageous wardrobe. Some trade exclusively in a post-ironic blase attitude.

There is a movie called 'My Dog Skip,' starring my 'Outsiders' costar Diane Lane. I do not recommend it. If you have a child, particularly one about to leave home, watching this film is to be emotionally waterboarded.

Here's my theory: If a person gets worldwide fame at a young age, they're emotionally frozen at that moment. For me, that's 15 to 18, so you find yourself in your mid-20s being a glorified 15-year-old. What could possibly go wrong?

I'm a Hollywood pinhead; I don't know about political labels.

I feel pressures to stay relevant. To stay interesting and interested. To stay at the top of my game and expand.

I've come to really like Twitter. You really do get to see what I'm about, and I like sharing with my fans.

I have, on the other hand, felt ill will from various people in the industry and the press.

My parents did divorce, but my dad has always been present for me and loving me and my mom as well when she was alive.

[ Hosting Saturday Night Live ] paved the way for Parks And Rec and The Grinder, the Comedy Central Roast, and that whole side of my career.