Top 40 Ewan McGregor Quotes

Success is tricky to deal with, both professionally and in your personal life.

The thing about parenting rules is there aren’t any. That’s what makes it so difficult.

At school there was no acting to be had other than school plays which I did now and again.

Mainly I was able to perform with music – I played the French horn, I would sing, and I was a drummer in the pipe band. So I think it was a way to show off.

I was born in ’71, so I remember bits of glam rock on ‘Top of the Pops’ toward the late ’70s, but I had no idea what kind of world it was. I didn’t like the music, either.

Sometimes I feel like doing smaller budget stuff. When I did ‘Young Adam’, for instance, I’d come out of ‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘The Island’, and I really wanted to be on a small film set. I wanted to be on something intimate and small again, and then ‘Young Adam’ cropped up in a pile of scripts I was sent.

I’ve never been one who agonizes over my work.

Conservative’s the last thing I am.

No, no I’m not, no, but I just think… when people are naked it tells you a lot about their relationships.

When you take away the phone and e-mail and you don’t have a million things to run around to, it allows your mind the space to think more expansively about the things that matter.

It’s not my job to try and alter the director’s style – he’s in charge, and I’ll always give him my trust.

I find politicians so desperately boring. I don’t trust them and don’t believe in them.

I’ve always been really uninterested in politicians and the acts of the Houses of Parliament, or government as an idea. But I’m interested in politics in that I’m a member of the world, and I have strong feelings of right and wrong, but I can’t get into the ins and outs of it.

I’ve done nudity in lots of things before. It’s something that’s never particularly bothered me.

If you’re suddenly doing something you don’t want to do for four years, just so you’ve got something to fall back on, by the time you come out you don’t have that 16-year-old drive any more and you’ll spend your life doing something you never wanted to do in the first place.

I don’t pay much attention to career or what other people think. I’ve always been quite arrogant.

Drama school can’t make you a brilliant actor, but you can do stuff for three years – you’re not going to be fired. You should just go for it all, even the stuff you think is codswallop.

I think rehearsal can be important if it’s done in a way that works. Often, rehearsal can be a waste of time.

I got married because I fell in love with this woman. I had a baby with her because we wanted to have children. But that’s not because of some philosophical ideal at all, no.

I especially love my Moto Guzzi.

I’m just looking for that moment to drop my Jedi knickers and pull out my real light saber.

I’m just into making quality stuff if I can, with interesting people and good scripts. But it’s very important that it’s about something and that it says something. Otherwise, I don’t know what the point is, really.

I’m not a guy who takes films for strong political messages.

I love acting and don’t find it to be very hard. I recognize when I’ve nailed it, and I can be very proud of myself.

Everything you do on set is directly related to your imagination when you read the script for the first time.

As a child I was taken to the pantomime or the theatre and I would always, always fall in love with somebody on the stage. And want to have sex with them.

I left it for seven years before going back on stage. I know now not to leave it so long.

I think the script is the key. Regardless of how great everybody else is working on a film, if you’re working on a script that you don’t think is great, you’re not gonna be able to make a great film. Whereas if the script is great, then you can.

The other two things are… well, I had a huge appetite for old black and white movies on BBC 2. At the weekends they used to run matinees, and the more romantic the better.

I’ve played in pipe bands in Scotland, and I’ve always played guitars and drums and stuff.

You can be playing a line some way and the director wants you to change that, or you can disagree. But I always think that the creative conversation between director and actor is what leads to good work.

I played music all through school and I kind of performed that way.

I find that the acting’s getting easier – with experience, everything is more instinctual.

I remember in Shallow Grave I remember a few times when we’d only have to do one take. But when you did have to do more than one, you’d build on the one you’d done.

I’m sure it’s not great fun for them, or for any parent, when their child says they want to be an actor, ‘cos it’s quite an uncertain business and it can be terribly hard for most actors.

I was nine years old when I made up my mind that that was what I definitely wanted to do.

So, no, I’m not trying to crack into Hollywood, although I’ll make films there if they’re good scripts.

From there I did a one year theatre acting course in Fife, and then three years of drama school in London.

Ultimately, you have to not worry about people thinking you should have played him differently. You’re the one playing the part so it has to be yours.

I like to dance, but it’s not my weekend activity. I’m not a clubber.