Top 35 Jeremy Irons Quotes

What I try to do as an actor is constantly find that, find ways to risk, find opportunities to fall on my face if it’s going to be worth it, and then maybe I’ll surprise myself.

An acting assistant stage manager in a theater in Canterbury, a rep theater. A small wage but just enough to get by on, and I made props and I walked on, and I changed scenery, and I realized that I just loved it.

It’s always great to play a man who sets himself up to be punctured.

My feeling, of course, is that it’s ludicrous to try to prove God’s existence by science. God has nothing to do with science. God has all to do with soul, and who can explain that?

I think the world is much more transparent now, and I think that’s probably a good thing. On the other hand, I think it makes it really tough for people who are natural born leaders who could be guiding us and leading our countries.

I think nobody since has written such extraordinary work as Shakespeare writes. The characters he writes are full of inconsistencies, which is a great human quality – I mean, we’re all very inconsistent in the way we behave.

I think all of society should be a think-tank where you throw ideas about. I had hoped the Internet would help. Actually, what it has done is make everybody go schtum. They’re attacked for saying anything. So they say nothing.

So I continued through my next school, which takes me up to the age of 17, moving from the bottom stream of one year into the bottom stream of the next year, all the way through. I showed other talents which gave me self-respect, which is fine.

I don’t mind getting older. I’m enjoying not having that raging ambition I’ve had all my life.

My next step must be to go to drama school. Well, I get into drama school, so I did that.

I succeeded on sort of chutzpah and charm. No technique at all, didn’t know what I was doing, but it worked and the character suited me.

The sad thing about any business I suppose, but in mine you see it particularly, is that you’re always asked to do what you’ve already done.

Film wise, I invariably look at my work and reckon I could have done it better. I’m also conscious that I’m in a profession where we get more praise than we should compared to the usefulness of what we do.

Because I’m now successful, what I’m being offered as an actor is more and more of the same.

It’s always nice working with friends. And if you have a director that you’ve worked with before, you don’t have to go through that first learning thing. There’s an element of trust there.

There are wonderful things happening all around the world. From Nova Scotia to Kerala, Bristol to Melbourne, and even in the Philippines, zero waste is on the agenda. I think what’s particularly inspiring is when communities don’t wait to be told what to do but just go ahead and do it.

I came to London. I spent nine months doing domestic work and gardening because I knew I wanted to get a West End show. So, when I was offered jobs in Stoke or Leicester or whatever, I’d say no. Eventually, I got ‘Godspell.’ It was gently building.

You ask my wife or my two sons, and they’ll tell you that I ain’t free with the money.

I envy children who know that they’re going to become doctors, know they’re going to go into the forces or whatever. I think choice is one of the hardest things, but that’s what I try to give my children, to say you can do anything.

I was the youngest. The yule lamb. The one who always got away without doing the washing up. My sister was four years older, and my brother six years.

At age 10 or 12 he’s going to boarding school in the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is, of course, down at the bottom of England just off South Hampton.

I wanted to become an actor because I wanted to become a gypsy. I wanted to live the gypsy life!

I constantly experience failure in that my work is never as good as I want it to be. So I live with failure.

There are people who are victims in life, and I don’t think they should be encouraged.

I keep working with fairly inexperienced directors. You know, if you have a good crew, a good cameraman, you know, I know what I’m doing. If the actors know what they’re doing, we can all pull together, and it works.

I’m not religious. I’m spiritual. Religious seems too much like a club.

And whenever I’m in a situation where I’m wearing the same as 600 other people and doing the same thing as 600 other people, looking back, I always found ways to make myself different, whether it be having a red lining inside of my jacket, having red shoes, it hasn’t changed.

My father was a CPA. He worked hard in the aircraft industry, and would come home more and more infrequently. He was about to leave my mother, which he did when I was 15.

I’ve never disliked a character I’ve played. I’ve always tried to find the humanity and the reasons for what he does.

I had people when I was younger trying to feel me up. Older men. I just told them to get lost.

I’ve always tended to play people who relish playing against the rules.

There’s a great thing about amateur sport: it is purer. And the athletes are not open to so much pressure with amateur sport.

I don’t watch a lot of television. I try to watch all the good movies, but I’ve got about twenty of these television series that I should be watching. I haven’t seen ‘The Wire.’ I haven’t seen ‘Mad Men.’ I haven’t seen Kevin’s thing. What’s that called? ‘House of Cards.’ I hear it’s wonderful.

Paris Hilton, that’s very interesting what she did. I’ve never done that. I haven’t really sort of ever got into that. As time passes, maybe I should record it and put it in a vault so that when I get a little old don’t have the energy I can remember how life used to be.

I wouldn’t call myself a method actor, but I have my own method. I do my own research. I come up with a background for the character. I’m not a club man. I don’t like isms. I’ve never really studied Stanislavski.