It was pretty jarring and it messed with my relationship to other people in a way that took years, I think, for me to kind of adjust to and become comfortable with, as an actor, the way I was trained, my job was to observe life and to observe other people, and so I used to walk around with my head up, and really engaged and watching people.

David Schwimmer

Categorized in : Entertainment

I like to challenge myself. I like to learn - so I like to try new things and try to keep growing.

David Schwimmer

growing challenges trying

I had a mustache when I was 13.

David Schwimmer

mustache

If there's something I want, I go for it. I just think about how I'm going to go for it.

David Schwimmer

ifs want thinking

It's really important to me not to be known as Ross when I'm 60.

David Schwimmer

known important

When I was six years old, my parents took me to this farmers' market with a petting zoo. They put me on a pony and, for some reason, it took off at a run and they had to chase it down. They tell me it was kind of traumatic.

David Schwimmer

running zoos years

You're only as good as the sum of your parts, and one person can't be a team.

David Schwimmer

team persons teamwork

Being generous or doing things for others actually makes me feel good so I don't do it because I hope karma will come round and get me and I'll benefit from it.

David Schwimmer

karma benefits feel-good

There are days when I think: what if I just checked out? What if I grew a beard and went off to live somewhere remote? I have often wondered about the freedom that would bring.

David Schwimmer

beard what-if thinking

Sometimes I've felt that the industry has typecast me as a certain kind of character. But then I think all it really takes is one role, the right role, to shake that up and change that perception.

David Schwimmer

perception character thinking

At this age - I'm 44 - I think life's too short. I want it to mean something to me, if I'm going to spend that much time doing it.

David Schwimmer

age mean thinking

I don't think I responded very well to the sudden celebrity, the sudden fame, and the loss of privacy.

David Schwimmer

privacy loss thinking

I spend half my time just living my life, and the other half analyzing it.

David Schwimmer

analyzing living-my-life half

And the thing is, every time you start a new show or do a new series, you're committing to another six years.

David Schwimmer

six shows years

Directing takes a lot longer than acting. This was about seven years in development, and then two and a half years with pre-production, production, post and now the release. Not that I have people banging on my door to star in movies, but it takes me out of the acting game for a longer chunk of time.

David Schwimmer

stars doors years

I think a huge amount of it is because of the Internet. Every single thing in the world is accessible with a few clicks. Almost every child, by the age of 13, has seen pornography. That's clearly different. It used to be really hard or really humiliating, as a 13-year-old, to access pornography. If you wanted to take a look at a Playboy, it was really challenging. Today, it's a joke.

David Schwimmer

children years thinking

I think the other honest attraction was that I just grew up loving watching TV and loving watching film, and there's so many directors and actors that I dreamed of working with, I just really wanted to take a crack at it and see if I could ever work with some of those.

David Schwimmer

watching-tv directors thinking

I try to educate myself as much as possible, as I do with the director and the designers and everyone I used to work with. It just helps, I think, with the frame of reference for who you're working with.

David Schwimmer

helping trying thinking

If I were given a choice between two films and one was dark and explored depraved, troubled or sick aspects of our culture, I would always opt for that over the next romantic comedy.

David Schwimmer

sick dark two

And, again, I'm the first one to say that I'm not going be successful at everything.

David Schwimmer

being-successful successful firsts

Can I tell you how strange it is to look in your rearview mirror and see guys in cars tailing you?

David Schwimmer

car guy mirrors