"The most attention I get is in a book store or video shop when I go to the foreign film section. Sometimes that can be fun, but usually those women want to talk about philosophy or something very dense. It's not like they're tearing off my shirt, you know"
About this Quote
The subtext is a quiet complaint about how public identity gets assigned. Maguire’s image in the early 2000s was the sensitive, decent-guy actor - approachable, brainy-adjacent, safe. The “foreign film section” becomes a punchline for being typecast not just on screen but socially: the kind of famous person strangers approach to confirm their own cultural credentials. Attention arrives as conversation, not desire; as a seminar, not a swoon.
“It’s not like they’re tearing off my shirt” is the closer that exposes what he’s really negotiating: the expectation that male stardom automatically equals sexual conquest. He undercuts it with a shruggy candor, puncturing the machismo myth while also admitting a baseline vanity. Fame, he implies, can be flattering and faintly absurd, especially when it comes wrapped in serious talk and mistaken assumptions about who you are supposed to be.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Maguire, Tobey. (2026, January 17). The most attention I get is in a book store or video shop when I go to the foreign film section. Sometimes that can be fun, but usually those women want to talk about philosophy or something very dense. It's not like they're tearing off my shirt, you know. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-attention-i-get-is-in-a-book-store-or-72167/
Chicago Style
Maguire, Tobey. "The most attention I get is in a book store or video shop when I go to the foreign film section. Sometimes that can be fun, but usually those women want to talk about philosophy or something very dense. It's not like they're tearing off my shirt, you know." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-attention-i-get-is-in-a-book-store-or-72167/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The most attention I get is in a book store or video shop when I go to the foreign film section. Sometimes that can be fun, but usually those women want to talk about philosophy or something very dense. It's not like they're tearing off my shirt, you know." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-most-attention-i-get-is-in-a-book-store-or-72167/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
