"I've been very fortunate - You only can do what you're offered, you know?"
About this Quote
The line's genius is how conversationally it smuggles in a critique. That tossed-off "you know?" isn't just folksy punctuation; it's a bid for shared realism, an invitation to stop pretending the system is a meritocracy. It also functions as self-protection. By framing his career as a sequence of offers rather than conquests, he dodges both vanity and blame: the hits become good fortune, the misfires become circumstance.
Context matters, too. Voight's generation came up in an era when star images were carefully managed and opportunities were fewer but bigger: studios could anoint, and they could freeze you out. Even now, with more content than ever, the bottleneck remains the same: access. His quote lands because it captures the actor's central paradox - the public sees control, the performer feels contingency - and it says the quiet part out loud without sounding bitter.
Quote Details
| Topic | Gratitude |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Voight, Jon. (2026, January 16). I've been very fortunate - You only can do what you're offered, you know? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-been-very-fortunate-you-only-can-do-what-126479/
Chicago Style
Voight, Jon. "I've been very fortunate - You only can do what you're offered, you know?" FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-been-very-fortunate-you-only-can-do-what-126479/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I've been very fortunate - You only can do what you're offered, you know?" FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/ive-been-very-fortunate-you-only-can-do-what-126479/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.







