"If a lot of dogs are on the beach, the first thing they do is smell each other's ass. The information that's gotten somehow makes pacifists out of all of them. I've thought, 'If only we smelled each other's asses, there wouldn't be any war.'"
Dustin Hoffman


(New York Psychiatric Institute) "It was one of the most illuminating experiences I ever had. You see all the devils we have and just see it out of control. The only thing that frightened me was, I had to hold people down while they were given shock treatments, but after a few months I said, 'I can't do it any more.' [At the time, he was reading "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," and couldn't get over how close it mirrored life at the psychiatric institute.] You went in there normal and came out crazy in those days. You came out worse."
Dustin Hoffman


"Today we sense, more than ever, that we're all out there on a smile and shoeshine. We live in a world of hot air. There is no substructure supporting us. It's all image that has no substance."
Dustin Hoffman


"When you get to be my age, you'll find out what an emotional mess YOU are. Female ormones surface more and more and you're gonna realize all of the emotional life you have missed by being tied to a maniac called testosterone. It is not a bad feeling to be emotional."
Dustin Hoffman


"I mean, I don't think I'm alone when I look at the homeless person or the bum or the psychotic or the drunk or the drug addict or the criminal and see their baby pictures in my mind's eye. You don't think they were cute like every other baby?"
Dustin Hoffman


"I've always had little patience for people who say, "There's nothing to see! There's nothing to read!" I say, "Fine! Do you know how many great films have been made in the last hundred years? Go get them! There are so many masterpieces, you won't be able to watch all of them!" And there are so many good books. Listen, we could stop art right now, and you wouldn't be able to read enough or see enough of the great stuff."
Dustin Hoffman