Quote Of The Day By Bob Odenkirk: 'I Don't Know What The Future Is If We Don't Hope To Be Better Than...'

Unlike his "Breaking Bad" character, Bob Odenkirk is handing out advice for free in TVLine's quote of the day. 

Odenkirk joined the cast of "Breaking Bad" in its second season as shady attorney Saul Goodman, then went on to reprise the role in the spin-off "Better Call Saul," earning six Emmy nominations for lead actor in a drama series. The series ran for six seasons on AMC between 2015 and 2022. 

He went on to lead a third series for AMC in 2023, starring in "Lucky Hank" as Hank Devereaux, the grumpy and disgruntled chairman of the English department at a small Pennsylvania college. The series was canceled after one season. 

Odenkirk's other TV credits include "The Bear," "Fargo," "How I Met Your Mother," "Entourage," "The Larry Sanders Show," and more. 

Because of his prolific career in some of TV's top shows, Odenkirk is delivering today's quote of the day.

"I don't know what the future is if we don't hope to be better than we are right now."

The quote above comes from a New York Times interview with Bob Odenkirk, where the actor discussed his career in middle age. He added: "In the face of what I consider the limitations of being a person, which are strict and seem immutable, we've got to keep trying."  

Like all good comedians, Bob Odenkirk doesn't romanticize life — he pokes fun at it. The quote above is a perfect example of his straightforward view of the world. He's not encouraging people to live life to the fullest with overly flowery language or banal platitudes about the fruits of positive thinking. Instead, he plainly states that he sees human beings as inherently flawed and limited creatures. But he also notes that there is simply no way to keep going if we can't hope that life — and the world — is on an upward trajectory. 

Though the subtext may be a bit bleak — that imperfection is inevitable and that the present is not always great — Odenkirk points toward a feeling of hopefulness that there are certainly better days ahead.

* "The bigger question for me is, What do I do now? I guess I have to do what I've always done: look for the next thing that seems curious, worthwhile, surprising." — from a 2026 interview with the New York Times

* "There's joy and reward in being alive and in the ways in which we look away to transform that horror — the horror, the horror — into something good, entertaining, comforting to another person, that's beautiful. That's the joy of life: turning [expletive] into gold. Comedy gold, whatever gold you can make it into. To me, that's the good part." — from a 2026 interview with the New York Times

* "I think sketch comedy, I'm sorry to say, is the most profound expression of human existence there is. I don't think any Kubrick movie or Freudian analysis or Shakespeare says as much about how humans operate and what is the ultimate problem with us as a species than sketch comedy. I wish it was not true. I wish that we were worthy of being taken apart and observed in subtle and complex ways. But I don't think so." — from a 2026 interview with the New York Times