Top 35 Robert Downey, Jr. Quotes

I always think part of success is being able to replicate results, taking what is interesting or viable about yourself as a professional person and seeing if you bring it into different situations with similar results.

If you’re doing a drama that has some comedic elements you can’t forget that it’s primarily a very serious film that has some light relief.

Look, even bad years are pretty good years I think.

Sometimes you just gotta be drop-kicked out of the nest.

I loved it, it’s such fun. I like that people are seeing it and then talking about it. Like when I took my son and his friends to see Napoleon Dynamite last year, we spent the next six weeks trying to explain it.

I think I just never wanted to be the creepy guy where people say, ‘Why do his leading ladies keep getting younger and younger, and why do they think he’s so hot even though we know that the girl who’s playing this part actually has a handsome boyfriend?’

I think you end up doing the stuff you were supposed to do at the time you were supposed to do it.

I think life changes every year. This is just a little more comfortable.

I read the script for Wonder Boys, and I said that was almost perfect, it was so classy, cool and funny. It’s a really specific thing. We stuck to it, it turned out good and a lot of people liked it.

I don’t want to go all Michael Jackson on you, but I never really had a childhood.

I’m not particularly tall, strong, fast, or aggressive.

In movies, people seem to be more emotional than they would ever be if that situation was actually happening to them.

I guess the issue for me is to keep things dynamic.

I take some pride in… representing myself exactly how I would like to have my son remember me to his kids.

I’ve noticed that worrying is like praying for what you don’t want to happen.

But I think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang really got that thing where, if a movie reads really funny and then has some dramatic or violent or sinister stuff in it, you can’t forget that primarily it has to be even funnier than you read it or that other stuff doesn’t work.

Acting is always a challenge.

I’m very good at deconstructing. I’m a very good troubleshooter for why something is unlikely to work. And most everything is unlikely to work.

Nothing pleases me more than when somebody who was awe-inspired to be working with me realizes I’m just another schmuck that they’re bored of hanging out with on a set. I love that moment. I like it when that persistent illusion is smashed.

I’m coming from a place of total strength and humility now.

With a terrible script you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it’s going to translate easily.

I don’t want to be so confident in myself.

Dad’s Jewish and Irish, Mom’s German and Scotch. I couldn’t say I was anything. My last name isn’t even Downey. My dad changed his name when he wanted to get into the Army and was underage. My real name is Robert Elias. I feel like I’m still looking for a home in some way.

Acting is the most wildly overpaid position imaginable.

It’s interesting when you’re old enough to take a new, objective approach looking at your parents, frame them in a way where you are actually taking yourself out of the equation and just look at the things that are true about their life.

I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you’ve done.

The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven.

I’m not 40 yet. I wouldn’t even bother comparing myself to Chaplin.

I just don’t like big guys who speak cryptically and act like they understand the language better than me.

I’m in a happy relationship, me and my ex are on really good terms, my kid and I are in a good spot.

But I will agree that I think that things happen with people in relationships, that you might have been able to enjoy Morocco, say, if you weren’t getting out of a bad marriage. You know what I mean?

Sometimes if you’re wanting to look just a little bit taller, then you want to dress with just more of a thin cut.

I was kind of like chasing my tail and trying to do the right thing, and was a little bit stupid. Or irresponsible, which is the same thing I guess. It’s just been really busy and I had a lot of great opportunities.

There are some parents who have really done it right and told their kid, ‘You know, we have this dough, none of this is for you. You have to get your own.’

I think that we all do heroic things, but hero is not a noun, it’s a verb.