Jeffrey Tambor Quotes

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Jeffrey Tambor

Profession : Actor

Birth : July 8, 1944

The honor of being able to play Maura is transformative. I'm 70 years old. I should be in a reading room, reading Dickens or something.

Jeffrey Tambor

'Clocked' means someone sees you for being transgender.

Jeffrey Tambor

I don't take off my nail polish when I go home because I'm too lazy, and they're fine with it. Maybe the checkout at the grocery store's not so great with it, but they're fine with it. The distrust, the phobias, those are learned, those are taught. But the natural grace is to understand and to love.

Jeffrey Tambor

I learned the biggest lesson just watching Ed McMahon, watching him watch Mr. Carson's monologue.

Jeffrey Tambor

George Saunders's 'Lincoln in the Bardo' is a hands-down masterpiece - the subject of Abraham Lincoln and the genius of this author is a perfect union.

Jeffrey Tambor

There was a library near us in San Francisco. It was the West Portal Public Library. I would ask my father to drive me there at night and pick me up when it closed. I think he was worried about this routine but never let on. Also, I kept this a secret from my friends, as I don't think it would have been considered the 'coolest' habit.

Jeffrey Tambor

It was the '50s, and the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal System were in fashion. I hung out in the 812 section - American theater and plays. This is where I first read Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' and was transfixed. I remember staring into space for what seemed an eternity after reading Linda Loman's final speech.

Jeffrey Tambor

Owning a bookstore was right up there with acting in life goals, but other than swaggering around the store, I'm not much use.

Jeffrey Tambor

I've been in three sort of... I mean, I'd say they're groundbreaking series, if only because of the creators. One was 'Max Headroom', another was 'The Larry Sanders Show', and the third was 'Arrested Development'.

Jeffrey Tambor

To you people out there, you producers and you network owners and you agents and you creative sparks, please give transgender talent a chance. Give them auditions. Give them their story. Do that.

Jeffrey Tambor

I almost should have a shirt made: 'Jill Soloway has changed my life...' Not only changed my life with the opportunity to play Maura, but the opportunity and the responsibility of playing Maura.

Jeffrey Tambor

I had a theater that was right across the street from me, and I would just go there after school and just hang out and watch... and everything seemed calmer there and nicer there and warmer there.

Jeffrey Tambor

I think I made $55 a week, and it was bliss... I was doing theater. It was all I ever wanted to do. It was so much fun, and you got paid for it, and you met people, and it's the greatest education in the world. And in my little Greenbrier station wagon, I felt very much like a troubadour.

Jeffrey Tambor

I think Maura'is funnier than I am, wittier than I am, more intelligent than I am, and I think she's just floating me at this point.

Jeffrey Tambor

Love New York Presbyterian. I will do anything for them.

Jeffrey Tambor

There are secrets in families. That is the definition of a family.

Jeffrey Tambor

I'm a Jewish son of Russian-Hungarian heritage parents. Humor was very important. My whole goal was to make my parents laugh. And my whole strategy as a young man was, if I could make them laugh, I could have enough time to figure out what to do next.

Jeffrey Tambor

When I was young kid, I used to watch Jack Benny, and I thought the minimal aspect of what he did was revelatory. I loved Jack Benny.

Jeffrey Tambor

The day before I work, I don't like to even look at the script and let whatever happens happen on the set. But I do prepare a lot. I'm a big believer in that.

Jeffrey Tambor

We all know about secrets - to have that pressure of something you can't reveal. That's universal: 'Am I safe? Am I gonna be OK? Will my family still love and respect me?'

Jeffrey Tambor