Matthew Perry > Quotes

“Chapter 6: Bruce Willis (page 142)

What did I do differently that season? I listened. I didn't just stand there and wait for my turn to speak. Sometimes in acting, it's more powerful to listen than to talk. I have tried to incorporate that in real life, too. Know more, say less. That's my new mantra.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“I was actually on methadone,Xanax, cocaine and a full quart of vodka a day.”
― Matthew Perry

“But I was still so often just a tourist in sobriety.”
― Matthew Perry

“Chapter 11: Batman (page 249)

Love and courage, man—the two most important things. I don't move forward with fear anymore—I move forward with curiosity.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“I have a shrink whose mantra is “reality is an acquired taste”—well, I’d lost both my taste and smell of reality by that point; I had Covid of the understanding; I was completely delusional.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“Chapter 10: The Big Terrible Thing (page 229)

There is a reason I'm still here. And figuring out why is the task that has been put in front of me.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“If you're at a bar, you just order another drink... but when it's the middle of the night, you don't tend to lie wide awake wishing you had one in your hand. That was new. That was terrifying. And that was a secret. (s. 64)”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“So, there is light in the darkness. It's there - you just have to look hard enough to find it.”
― Matthew Perry

“I am so grateful for all the wonderful women whom I had broken up with simply because I was afraid - I am grateful and sorry. (s. 249)”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“When someone does something nice for someone else, I see God. But you can’t give away something you don’t have. So, I try to improve myself daily. When those moments come and I am needed, I’ve worked out my shit, and do what we are all here for, which is simply to help other people”
― Matthew Perry

“And not only do I have the disease, but I also have it bad. I have it as bad as you can have it, in fact. It's backs-to-the-wall time all the time. It's going to kill me (I guess something has to).”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.

“I needed to be kind, to love well, to listen better, to give unconditionally.”
― Matthew Perry

“Mom, being beautiful and smart and charistmatic and the star in every room she entered would date guys, and they'd date her back, and sure enough, I'd turn every one of those men into my dad. [...] I was continually losing my father; I was continually being dropped at the border. The roar of Niagra River was forever in my ears, and not even a dose of phenobartial could make it mute." (s. 25-26)”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“You never know where one thing will lead...I guess the lesson is take every opportunity, because something might come of it.”
― Matthew Perry

“For all of the sufferers out there.
You know who you are.”
― Matthew Perry

“I hadn’t been there for anyone for so long, my addiction being my best friend and my evil friend and my punisher and my lover, all in one. My big terrible thing.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.

“And most of the time I have these nagging thoughts; I am not enough, I don't matter, I'm too needy. These thoughts make me uncomfortable. I need love but I don't trust it. If I drop my game, my Chandler, and show you who I really am you might notice me and leave me. And I can't have that. I won't survive that. Not anymore. It will turn me into a spec of dust and annihilate me. So I will leave you first. I will fabricate in my mind that something went wrong with you, and I'll believe it. And I'll leave.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“I need love, but I don’t trust it. If I drop my game, my Chandler, and show you who I really am, you might notice me, but worse, you might notice me and leave me. And I can’t have that. I won’t survive that. Not anymore. It will turn me into a speck of dust and annihilate me. So, I will leave you first. I will fabricate in my mind that something went wrong with you, and I’ll believe it. And I’ll leave.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“But I was still so often just a tourist in sobriety. (s. 142)”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“I was living in rehab when Monica and Chandler got married. It was May 17th, 2001.”
― Matthew Perry

“We jumped in this big blue truck and drove up a mountain, snow swirling around. I had no idea where we were going. We seemed to be heading up into the very stars themselves. Eventually, we reached a mountaintop, and for a moment the weather cleared, and we could see New Mexico and beyond, all the way back to Canada. As we sat there, she made me feel like the king of the world. A gentle snow was falling, and with that, 1996 began. (s. 111-112)”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“I try not to dwell on this too much - if you spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror, you will crash your car.”
― Matthew Perry

“I was still in a coma, but honestly I probably loved it.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“I have accomplished a lot in my life, but there is still so much left to do, which daily excites me. I was a kid from Canada who had all his dreams come true—they were just the wrong dreams. And instead of giving up, I
changed and found new dreams.”
― Matthew Perry

“But there was something lurking in my shadows and my genes, like a creepy beast in a dark place, something I had that my father did not, and it would be a decade before we knew what it was. Alcoholism, addiction - you can call it what you want, I've chosen to call it a Big Terrible Thing. (s. 44)”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“It is very odd to live in a world where if you died, it would shock people but surprise no one.”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

“A year and a half later, I was taking fifty five of those pills a day, I weighed 128 pounds when I checked into Hazelden rehab in Minnesota.”
― Matthew Perry

“And yes, there is a hell. Don't let anyone tell you different. I've been there; it exists; end of discussion.”
― Matthew Perry, Films cultes

“Matthew has a two percent chance of making it through the night.

Everyone was wrought with emotion that some crumbled to the ground right there in the hospital lobby. I will have to live out the rest of my days knowing that my mother and others heard those words.”
― Matthew Perry

“[Craig] He was also much better-looking than me [...] I should have hated him, but funny always wins, so I decided to keep loving him. (s. 75)”
― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing