[Directing first film:] I was terrified, it was really very scary because there is a lot of responsibility. I think I was terrified because I wanted it to work so much. A lot of actors direct movies but I thought the stakes were kind of higher for me because I really, really cared. [...] I just worked as hard as I possibly could on every single thing, every single day. I said that if this failed it would not be because I didn't work as hard as I possibly could...every day.

Ben Affleck

Categorized in : Thinking Responsibility Scary

No matter how much you change, you still got to pay the price for the things you’ve done.

Ben Affleck

pay-the-price done matter

It doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life, because that's going to happen. All that matters is that you gotta get up.

Ben Affleck

get-up matter life

I want to thank my wife who I don't normally usually associate with Iran. I want to thank you for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases. It's good. It is work, but it's the best kind of work, and there's no one I'd rather work with!

Ben Affleck

iran wife want

All I do, really, is go to work and try to be professional, be on time and be prepared.

Ben Affleck

be-prepared prepared trying

Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms.

Ben Affleck

strike-back phantoms bombs

If I ever woke up with a dead hooker in my hotel room, Matt would be the first person I'd call.

Ben Affleck

would-be rooms firsts

It's important for me to try my hand at philanthropy because I want to leave behind a record of someone who did more than just gobble up stuff for themselves. I realized that a life lived for yourself is not much of a life.

Ben Affleck

important trying hands

The value of work, and of always learning something new, and what it takes to achieve excellence. I really believe in those things that you have to dedicate yourself and spend time, that excellence is elusive. It's a little maddening, to try to have that level of discipline in your life, and I don't succeed all the time. But I do try.

Ben Affleck

learning-something-new discipline believe

No matter what you're doing, if you're trying to make a movie, you need to be working with people that are really good and who make you better.

Ben Affleck

trying people needs

I'm trying to make people feel welcome and feel valued.

Ben Affleck

welcome trying people

Marriage hasn't been my thing. But gay people, knock yourselves out!

Ben Affleck

gay-pride gay people

I find forgiveness to be really healthy.

Ben Affleck

healthy

Sure, I suffered a lot. But it's not like the end of the world and it's not who I am. I lead quite a pleasant life and I'm able to divorce a perceived reality from my actual experience of life.

Ben Affleck

divorce who-i-am reality

I'm a writer. An amateur photographer. An actor.

Ben Affleck

actors photographer

You get old, you slow down.

Ben Affleck

slow-down old-you

When I look up at the screen and see myself I always have to laugh. Not because I think I'm doing a horrible job, quite the contrary, I just feel it's so surreal to feel like one person can entertain so many at one time.

Ben Affleck

jobs laughing thinking

When you are in your 20s and you're not married with kids, you're having fun. But when you're in your 30s and you're not married and don't have kids, you begin to develop a Peter Pan complex. As you grow older, you have more responsibilities and you have to step up to them.

Ben Affleck

responsibility fun kids

I like acting for myself as a director. I act and I know that I'll have a chance to have some say in what gets used and that I'll be able to give myself enough takes and be on the same page as myself about how the scene should play.

Ben Affleck

acting play giving

I've never held myself up particularly high when I had movies that worked, and I never held myself all that low when I had failures.

Ben Affleck

high-notes lows

It wasn't my childhood fantasy to work with Truffaut or be in obscure films. I like Midnight Run better than I like The Bicycle Thief. It was films like Die Hard and Bladerunner that made me want to be an actor.

Ben Affleck

childhood midnight running