Top 90 David Thewlis Quotes

I must have read three-quarters of ‘Anna Karenina’ on my phone. Which might be a record.

I had such a nice time making it, and I can’t wait to make the fifth one. The whole crew were just really, really lovely. All the costume people, the make-up girls, the kids – even my driver.

Yeah, well that’s the best thing about it, I think, is knowing kids and kids getting mental when they know you’re in it. Any kid you meet and anyone I know tells the kid you’re in it and they get short of breath.

In ‘Seven Years In Tibet,’ I played a Buddhist. But I’m not religious at all, really.

What is truth? What is a true story? Who is telling the truth, and what is truth in this world today?

I am the sort of guy who does go to modern art shows.

I don’t think Alfonso was a big expert on Potter either. He was feeling his way through it more than I was.

Everybody knows someone like that: wonderful, attractive people full of passion and ideals. You envy them, but you know there’s a dark side, which is brutal and cruel and violent. That dark side informs what’s wonderful about them, and the passion and rage inform the darkness; they’re inseparable.

It’s certainly not easy having to spend a lot of time apart, and having a five-year-old child who’s got to be at school. So we need to learn how to organize our time really well because for months we will be in two different countries.

I was still listening to the Beatles until I came here, you know.

The thing about ‘Harry Potter’ is it’s great fun because of the people – I was usually with Julie Walters and Mark Williams, Brendan Gleeson, Robbie Coltrane, and the kids. Wonderful, funny, amazing people. If you’re going to hang around on a set bored, you might as well do it with Julie Walters.

I’d been a stepparent for about two years with a woman who had a child, and I came to realize I adored children and was good with them. So I was very happy when Anna got pregnant.

Well I am afraid that I am going to die, because I have just put a down payment on a house.

I can remember, after I started doing films, my mum began going to more arthouse films. She went to see ‘Edward Scissorhands’ and phoned me up and said: ‘What was that all about? He had scissors on his hands.’ Good question. I think she should review films on Channel 4.

I’ve always tended to write comedy, but I’d hate to just write some kind of sitcom or a lighthearted series of jokes and slapstick. I wanted to talk about some deeper things within the comedy.

I don’t think they should trust anything that happens in ‘Fargo’ at all, and I’m sure ‘Fargo’ fans know not to make the mistake of trusting too much.

You always have to look for something beautiful wherever you go.

I’ve never been that bothered about doing stage or television. I just love doing films. With theatre, it goes on night after night.

People sometimes say, ‘Why do you choose a part?’ and sometimes it’s not that I chose it but that that was the one that came along.

It’s certainly not easy having to spend a lot of time apart, and having a five-year-old child who’s got to be at school. So we need to learn how to organize our time really well because for months we will be in two different countries.

I did ‘Basic Instinct 2’ because I had a baby about to be born, and the director said we could shoot before the due date.

Publishing a novel was such a proud thing for me. When I was a kid, I used to say to my mum and dad, ‘I’m going to write a book. You’ll see.’ So when I did ,and it was published, and people liked it, it was great.

Well I am afraid that I am going to die, because I have just put a down payment on a house.

Yeah, well that’s the best thing about it, I think, is knowing kids and kids getting mental when they know you’re in it. Any kid you meet and anyone I know tells the kid you’re in it and they get short of breath.

I had no idea how one became an actor. I didn’t know things such as drama schools existed. It all just sort of happened accidentally.

I thought ‘Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’ was terrible. I’m a big fan of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, so I don’t know what went wrong with that.

The world is enormously dangerous and scary. I worry very much for my daughter. I’m not sure we’re in control any more, and I think the Internet is partly responsible for that.

I met the Coens here a few years ago and they said they liked my work.

When you do something well, this is the best job in the world.

People sometimes say, ‘Why do you choose a part?’ and sometimes it’s not that I chose it but that that was the one that came along.

I was a young actor in my 20s, going out in Soho, having a wild time.

One can only improvise what one knows.

No matter what one looks at and finds temporarily pleasing, it can never be as beautiful as just a tree, really.

I thought ‘Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’ was terrible. I’m a big fan of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, so I don’t know what went wrong with that.

Publishing a novel was such a proud thing for me. When I was a kid, I used to say to my mum and dad, ‘I’m going to write a book. You’ll see.’ So when I did ,and it was published, and people liked it, it was great.

I like time off. I’m not a workaholic.

I enjoy things that are so far away from me; that’s why, when I play things that are a little bit closer to me, I get really bored. When it’s something that’s the antithesis of what I am, there’s much more to lose yourself in.

I used to write out of angst. My writing was quite miserable, quite angry, even when it was funny. It was based on this sadness and tired emotional disdain for the world.

I’d only read a bit of the first book. And I just knew about all the media furor over it. But I’d not read books 2 or 3. I’d just read a bit of it. And I’d seen the films.

I was interested in the idea of celebrity… some very untalented people getting very successful and making a lot of money for not a lot of work, sometimes.

I think I’ve had more fun playing Varga than I’ve had for quite a number of years playing anything.

I like time off. I’m not a workaholic.

I got hooked to American news like a great TV season. It plays like fiction. I would come home from work, and I would put it on, and I would stay up until 2 in the morning watching it and get up in the morning and watch it.

I’ve been offered TV things over the years, but usually, that’s about that I don’t want to be away from home for that long, because it’s a long time to be away your home country and my family.

Dad worked in the same shop, behind the same counter, five or six days a week, for 38 years, and hated it.

I’d had a relationship with a French girl, a Japanese girl, an American girl, a Filippina and she was there all the time – a Lancashire girl. I thought: ‘It’s a Lancashire girl I was looking for. Why didn’t I realize it?’

You always have to look for something beautiful wherever you go.

Trying to keep a relationship going on the phone is disastrous.

Restoration I did because I really loved e novel and I like Michael Hoffman, who directed it, but it wasn’t a really challenging part for me. I’m not critical of the film: I just don’t think I gave a very interesting performance.

I enjoy things that are so far away from me; that’s why, when I play things that are a little bit closer to me, I get really bored. When it’s something that’s the antithesis of what I am, there’s much more to lose yourself in.

I’m often cast as religious figures, good and bad, such as ‘Kingdom Of Heaven.’

In the prepping for ‘Azkaban,’ I read ‘Azkaban’ and ‘Goblet of Fire.’

And it was only released in London last week, so when I go back to England Monday or whatever, I am expecting heaps of adulation. I’m hoping there is. If that doesn’t happen I will be disappointed.

I think the most beautiful sound is a child laughing.

For years, I’ve been mistaken for Rhys Ifans. All the time. People come up and say, ‘Notting Hill?’ I nearly got beaten up once for not being Rhys.

It’s not my ambition to direct lots of films. I think if I direct one film in my whole life, why rush it?

I see people around me with very unhappy love lives, who may have held out for that perfect somebody. And the failure to achieve that brings along a lot of bitterness which is very unattractive; therefore they’re probably less likely to achieve it.

One can only improvise what one knows.

We didn’t need the Internet for Nazi Germany to happen. But I feel like there’s this lack of humanity because of it.

Dad worked in the same shop, behind the same counter, five or six days a week, for 38 years, and hated it.

It wasn’t the greatest script in the world, but not many people can say they’ve played a wicked king in a swashbuckling Arthurian special-effects monster movie.

It wasn’t the greatest script in the world, but not many people can say they’ve played a wicked king in a swashbuckling Arthurian special-effects monster movie.

The very best thing about doing it is seeing the reaction on kid’s faces when you tell them you’ve done it.

I paint a bit myself. My house in Clerkenwell has a room that is done up like a big installation.