Jeremy: (on creating characters) I don't think I'm a good enough actor to go from the outside in. I kind of have to go from the inside out.
Jeremy: (on competing in Hollywood.) I think any time you start letting other people’s success get to you is when life is gonna be a very long, strange, hard road.
Jeremy: (on working for three years on Ellen) It was the first and last time in my life that I dragged myself to work.
Jeremy (on his perfect date): A place, no matter what is going on, let’s say we’re in the middle of madness, people are lighting themselves on fire - if we could have a chance to hear each other, we’ll be okay.
Jeremy: (on doing magic in 'Smokin Aces') I've been on the stage my entire life as an actor and it's kind of another level where you pull this thing off and then to look in people's faces that are completely freaked out by something.
Jeremy: I want to see what happens if I don't work. It's like an experiment... I want to read, I want to write, I want to chill.
Jeremy: I have to act. I can't do anything else.
Jeremy: I'm not a boy now. I'm a man, I hope. I hope I've had my artistic bar mitzvah somewhere.
Jeremy: The stage is my love, it's where I started and where I do my best work.
Jeremy: (on filming in Venice for Chasing Liberty.) It’s a really romantic place and I’m single and I wasn’t with anyone there. It was like being a straight man on a gay cruise.
Jeremy: (on working on the play 'Fat Pig.') I needed to get out of it, because it was so unbelievably emotionally draining. I was breaking up with a very heavy woman on the beach every night. And, you know, weeping like a bitch. You try breaking up with someone eight shows a week.
Jeremy: Now more than ever, I get people screaming "Cheese!" (from Old School). And I have to say, if you really want to make me angry, yell "Cheese!" I mean there are so many other things to yell at me but "Cheese!" I don't even eat cheese.
Jeremy: If I was some good-looking kid plucked off the street and thrown onto the hot new sitcom, how could I possibly have game? You have to log the hours and fine-tune your instrument.
Jeremy: I want to be radical on the inside, but not on the outside.
Jeremy: My Bar Mitzvah was perfect. It was in my basement. There was no theme. I can’t believe I even did it and made it. I was not the most successful Bar Mitzvah student. I was probably the worst Hebrew student of the bunch... Religion came to me in a very kind of awkward way.
Jeremy: The Dalai Lama was once asked for his favorite chant, and he said it was better not to have a favorite anything, which I think is a great thought. Also, I did this sort of thing once and I gave away the name of my favorite acupuncturist, who's my hero, and now I can't even find him anymore. I don't know if I can give away all my secrets.
Jeremy Piven: If I have a rapper like Common rolling hard with me at a club and I hand him a microphone and he hits five songs in a row and the crowd goes crazy, I don't feel guilty about drinking on the house
Jeremy Piven: It's your job as an actor to fill out the blanks. I love doing that. To fill in the bones.
Jeremy: I love to play the drums. I probably would have been a drummer if acting hadn't come along.
Jeremy: I've got one of those faces. Everyone thinks they know me but they're not sure from where. They probably think I owe them money.
Jeremy: I would not be in a porn movie for any amount of money.
Jeremy Piven: "I’m just mystified and fascinated by women, and I’m still single. Hence all of that, and the fact that I celebrate them so much, I understand that I’m unevolved at this exact moment to share my life with one. I wouldn’t inflict that upon anyone yet. But, I’m getting closer. I think just a combination of being able to be comfortable with your own voice, your own opinion, and take on life. And to be able to be open to someone else’s, to have your own loves and skills and talents, and yet be able to have enough room for someone else’s. Those are really interesting things to me."
Jeremy Piven: [On being on stage versus in front of the camera] "In front of the camera, it's a very precise science. You have to hold in your energy and somehow make it appropriate, and you're shooting out of sequence, so you have to husband your energy throughout the day and explode at the right times. On stage you have the entire house. You're sitting and breathing the same air. You're being seen from head to toe and you get a running start on the piece. They're quite different beasts."
Jeremy Piven: [On how to make a good first impression on the set and how to avoid getting cut out of movies] "From the get-go, I'd keep talking and never stop. Literally, I would take single lines and just keep going. In Runaway Jury [2003], there are so many great actors but I got lucky because I'm standing next to Dustin Hoffman! That's the secret: Get next to him and they can't cut you out!"
Jermey Piven [On low periods in an actor or actress' career where it is tough to get work]: What people forget is the pendulum swings both ways, and when you're having a low moment as a person, that can inform you as an actor. I know people who have done their best work after they bottomed out completely.
Jermey Piven [On Hollywood agents]: ...There are all different kinds of agents. There are agents that are in it because they love to be able to take someone's energy and expose that to the world...we [actors] are all still searchin' for that person...and at the other end of the spectrum there's just the deal-maker who will just crush the deal...and then there's everything in between.
Jeremy Piven: Unless an entire row of people got up in the middle of a performance and left the theater in disgust, I felt as though I hadn't done my job.
Jeremy participated in the 2nd Annual GM All-Car Showdown, showcasing his 2006 Cadillac XLR.
One of Jeremy's biggest acting influences when young was Marlon Brando's performance in Apocalypse Now.
Jeremy most enjoys playing what he calls "tragically flawed" characters.
Jeremy considers his father, Byrne Piven, to be the best actor he ever knew.
Jeremy was the featured guest at the Piven Theatre Workshop's 2006 benefit gala.
Jeremy was ranked at 49 on the AskMen.com Top 49 Men of 2006 list.
Jeremy appeared as a psychologist in the 1998 music video for God Made Velcro's Shock The Mind.
Although Jeremy refuses to smoke cigarettes, he can sometimes be seen smoking cigars.
Jeremy was named one of Hollywood's Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine in June, 2004.
Jeremy's co-star in Keeping Up With the Steins, Jami Gertz, also attended the Piven Theatre Workshop.
Jeremy's dream roles include Marlon Brando and Gene Kelly.
Jeremy's favorite playwrights include Arthur Miller and Eugene Ionesco.
If Jeremy could pick anyone, living or dead, to be a member of his entourage, he would pick writer Hunter Thompson.
Made his stage debut at the age of 8 performing with his mother and actor John Cusack in Chekhov's The Darling at the Piven Theatre Workshop.
Jeremy's hobbies include kick boxing and watching movies.
Jeremy is a fan of George Clinton & the Parliament Funk. In fact, growing up his favorite song was Flashlight.
As of 2007 Jeremy has a cat named Zooey.
Jeremy loves drumming. He has drum kits, congas, and bongos all throughout his home.
Jeremy is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Piven is known to have shared an apartment with John Cusack.
Jeremy hit himself in the head kissing his Emmy for best supporting actor for Entourage.
From November 2004 to January 2005 Jeremy Piven starred with former Felicity star Keri Russell in Neil LaBute's off-Broadway play Fat Pig, for which he was distinguished with an honor/nomination from the Drama League.
Jeremy Piven was supposed to star alongside his close friend John Cusack in the New Crime Productions' High Fidelity in 2000, but had to pull out due to other commitments.
Piven attended Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, WI as a teenager. He played Bernardo in West Side Story there.
As of 2007, Piven resides in Malibu, California. He has also owned homes in Chicago, Illinois, including one on Lake Shore Drive.
Jeremy got malaria while filming PCU and had to be rushed to the hospital.
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