Robert Downey Personal quotes 2

The great thing about Saturday Night Live (1975) was being at 30 Rockefeller Center. And having Belushi and Aykroyd's old office. And me and Michael [Anthony Michael Hall] saying, "We want bunk beds. With NFL Sheets. And we want them now." And Michael was like "Man, it's gonna be great, we're gonna be buddies, we're gonna do a show together, we're gonna ..." Then, "I'm gonna do Out of Bounds (1986)" and he left. As for me, I was doing Back to School (1986) and Saturday Night Live at the same time. So I'd fly back to Los Angeles for a couple of days during the week to shoot the movie and then fly back and, "Live from New York, it's a tired young man!"

I had four weeks' work in Baby It's You (1983), and I told all my friends I was now, officially, a major talent and film star. And then they cut my scenes out. You don't even see me except in one scene - you see me in the background until this self-indulgent actress leans forward to try and get more camera time. They cut all my scenes out and my friends go, "Hey, Robert - maybe it's you!" Now I don't tell people that I'm in a film until I see it on videocassette.

Tofu is the root of all evil, and there's only one thing that can change a man's mind, and that's a modified Uzi with an extra-long clip.

I did Air America (1990) for two reasons: to be in a movie with Mel Gibson and to make a bunch of money. And then underneath there was the hope that in doing this formulaic thing I would be launched into a whole new realm of opportunity to do A-list movies. By the time we were done, the only positive thing was meeting Mel Gibson.

Five hundred grand for two weeks. [on why he did Danger Zone (1996)]

[on Restoration (1995)] I just thought [Hugh Grant] was a dick, that's all. And I still do. You know, and that could be something that has to do with me, or it could just be that not everyone in this industry is someone I'd care to hang out with.

[on Weird Science (1985)] I defecated in [Kelly LeBrock's] trailer, much to the chagrin ofBill Paxton and Robert Rusler. It was a real bad scene. Joel Silver freaked. I never admitted it. Joel said, "Downey, did you do it?" and I said I wish I had. Because I'd been threatening everyone that if they didn't treat me right, I was going to take a dump in their trailer, or that I'd go take a shit in Joel's office, on his desk or something.

[on his childhood] I didn't want to talk about what my dad did because it wasn't like he was directing All in the Family (1971) or anything. He was doing these crazy films. Mom would pick me up at school wearing this big quilted cape. I felt like I was in a J.D. Salinger story. 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.

[on Sean Penn] In a relatively short time he was a better friend than some people I'd known for ages. I remember him saying three or four years ago, "You have two reputations. I think you know what both of them are, and I think you'd do well to get rid of one of those reputations. If you don't, it will get rid of the other one." And I was like, "Two reputations, I'll be right back." Just hearing him say that reminded me that I should go score. After that, he was like, forget it. It sucks, too, because someone as honorable as he is, I really should have responded. Jesus, I grew up idolizing this guy. Not only does he consider me a friend, but he's taking time. He's got a family. He's got a career that's going well. He's living his dreams and making time for me, and I'm like, "I can't, I just can't - sorry, busy."

As soon as I started smoking heroin instead of smoking coke, everything was different, and I knew it was. And it happened around the time I was doing Home for the Holidays(1995). Home for the Holidays is, for me, one of the most relaxed performances in the history of cinema. I can't attribute that to the fact that I was at a serene place in my life, or that there was a real warm feeling on the set. This is a problem for me because I glamorize this stuff. I can't say that it wasn't real dark, real evil and real hurtful to those around me. And yet, practically every take of that film was a print. God bless Jodie Foster. When does she have time to do a handwritten letter telling someone how she genuinely cares about them? She said, "Listen, I'm not worried about you on this film. You're not losing it or nodding out, and you're giving a great performance. I'm worried about your thinking you can get away with doing this on another film."

[on Chaplin (1992)] When I accepted the part, they didn't tell me that I also had to do the acrobatic stuff of Charlie. That has cost me a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Though I now can say, 'I did all my stunts myself.' Working on Chaplin was really intensive and cost me years of my life, but if I could do it all over again, no doubt I would do it the same way.

[on Chaplin (1992)] Chaplin was the culmination of an opportunity, and the biggest humiliation I've ever experienced. It was like winning the lottery, then going to prison. I realized that nothing that had worked for me before was going to work here. I'd watch one of Charlie's films, but by the end of it I was wildly depressed, because I realized that what he'd done in this twenty-minute short was more expressive and funnier than everything I've thought about doing my whole life.

[on U.S. Marshals (1998)] Possibly the worst action movie of all time, and that's just not good for the maintenance of a good spiritual condition. You've had a traumatic year, you've been practically suicidal - what do you think would be really healing for you? How about like twelve weeks of running around as Johnny Handgun? I think that if you talk to a spirit guide, they would say, 'That'll kill you.'

[on U.S. Marshals (1998)] I thought maybe there was something I was missing, and what I really needed to do was to be in one of those films that I love taking my kid to. It would end up being really depressing. I'd rather wake up in jail for a TB test than have to wake up another morning knowing I'm going to the set of US Marshals.

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

I have a sense of destiny that you are led to the things you are supposed to do.

[on Mickey Rourke] He's so good. And he's formidable and he's very much reminding me of that kind of charming, confident guy that we know.

[on Iron Man 2 (2010)] I've never been in a sequel and it's very daunting because I feel the expectation of the millions of people who watched it and enjoyed it and told me that it was a little different than your usual genre picture and that they expected us to not screw it up. So I actually have taken Iron Man 2 (2010) probably more seriously than any movie I've ever done, which is appropriately ridiculous for Hollywood.

Mel Gibson cast me in The Singing Detective (2003), even though an insurance company wouldn't cover it because it was my first film after my release from behind bars. The best part was when Mel gave me a motorcycle while we still had two weeks left to shoot. I go, 'Are you trying to ruin this movie? What if I have an accident?' He goes, 'No, no. I figure if you made it two-thirds of the way through, you can't do anything wrong.'

What do you say, though -- if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plan.

[His Golden Globe acceptance speech for Best Actor-Comedy or Musical] If you start playing violins, I will tear this joint apart. First of all, I want to thank my wife Susan Downey for telling me Matt Damon was going to win so don't bother to prepare a speech. That was at about ten AM. I don't have anybody to thank. I'm sorry. Everyone's been so gratuitous, it was a collaboration, we all did this together. Certainly not going to thank Warner Brothers, Alan Horn, and my god, robbing off these guys. They needed me.Avatar (2009) was going to take us to the cleaners. If they didn't have me, we didn't have a shot buddy. What am I going to do? I'm not going to be able to thank Joel Silver. I mean the guy has only restarted my career twelve times since I began twenty-five years ago. I really don't want to thank my wife because I could be busing tables at the daily groom right now if not for her. Jesus, what a gig that would be. Guy Ritchie had a great vision for this film and a lot of great people came together and we worked our asses off. It's just a privilege. The Hollywood Foreign Press has a quote by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a genius by the way, and he said "Art is the blood, Is libel to take to the strongest forms". That is also why I would like to thank, or not thank, the Hollywood Foreign Press because they are a strange bunch of people and now I'm one of them. Thank you.

It's hard for me to watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) and not get nostalgic about it. It's not perfect but in some ways, I think it's the best thing I've ever done. I don't know why.

My intent is to dominate the playing field for as long as I can, with my own challenges, with myself.

I don't drink these days. I am allergic to alcohol and narcotics. I break out in handcuffs.

Robert Downey Personal quotes

I've always felt like such an outsider in this industry. Because I'm so insane, I guess.

The higher the stakes, the happier I am, the better I will be.

I'm not used to feeling like I belong where I am.

A lot of my peer group think I'm an eccentric bisexual, like I may even have an ammonia-filled tentacle or something so

mewhere on my body. That's okay.

I've become a picky little bitch. I've never bothered to plan projects before. I just used to throw the script across the room and say, "Why do they keep sending me this horseshit?" And then I'd start rehearsals two weeks later.

[on his addiction to drugs]: It's like I have a loaded gun in my mouth, and I like the taste of metal.

It's a blanket statement to say, "That guy's really sharp and amicable and nice," because there's a little bit of a--hole in every nice guy, and there's a little bit of genius in every moron.

I am putting together some ideas for two or three more things I want to do. Maybe a CD of just my kind of standards, which would be Supertramp and Steely Dan covers with an orchestra. I'm deep into old Genesis. I'm sorry, but these are songs that mean something to me. "Follow You Follow Me" is a song that's about something to me. [on his music]

I know very little about acting. I'm just an incredibly gifted faker.

It was so nice to go into this fake courtroom [on Ally McBeal (1997)]. I immediately went up into the judge's chair. Nice view. A preferable perspective.

What I usually hate about these movies when suddenly the guy that you were digging turns into Dudley Do-Right, and then you're supposed to buy into all his "Let's go do some good! That Eliot Ness-in-a-cape-type thing. What was really important to me was to not have him change so much that he's unrecognizable. When someone used to be a schmuck and they're not anymore, hopefully they still have a sense of humor. [on superhero movies]

[on Black and White (1999)] A stage slap from Mike Tyson is like a shovel whack from a normally fortified male.

Johnny Depp Quotes

I'm an old-fashioned guy . . . I want to be an old man with a beer belly sitting on a porch, looking at a lake or something.

[when asked by James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio (1994) what attracts him to funny hats] I don't know, maybe I just read too much Dr. Seuss as a kid.

[asked if he is a romantic] Am I a romantic? I've seen Wuthering Heights (1939) ten times. I'm a romantic.

[about being dragged behind a carriage in the woods on Sleepy Hollow (1999)] I wasn't afraid of getting hurt. I was just afraid that the horses may relieve themselves on the journey.

I'm shy, paranoid, whatever word you want to use. I hate fame. I've done everything I can to avoid it.

When kids hit one year old, it's like hanging out with a miniature drunk. You have to hold onto them. They bump into things. They laugh and cry. They urinate. They vomit.

This is a rumor-filled society and if people want to sit around and talk about whom I've dated, then I'd say they have a lot of spare time and should consider other topics... or masturbation.

The character I've played, that I've responded to, there has been a lost-soul quality to them.

Sure, I find it touching, honestly, but awards are not as important to me as when I meet a ten-year-old kid who says, "I love Captain Jack Sparrow" . . . that's real magic for me.

The term "serious actor" is kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? [Like] "Republican party" "airplane food".

On a film you start to get closer and closer with the people you're working with, and it becomes like this circus act or this travelling family.

If you turn on the television and see the horrors that are happening to people in the world right now, I think there's no better time to strive to have some kind of hope through imagination. I think it's a time to close your eyes and try to make a change, or at least hope to make a change, or we're going to explode.

I suppose nowadays it's all a question of surgery, isn't it? Of course the notion is beautiful, the idea of staying a boy and a child forever, and I think you can. I have known plenty of people who, in their later years, had the energy of children and the kind of curiosity and fascination with things like little children. I think we can keep that, and I think it's important to keep that part of staying young. But I also think it's great fun growing old.

All the little films I've done that were perceived by Hollywood as these obscure, weird things, I always thought could appeal to a larger audience. I mean, box office is such a mystery to me that I can't . . . you know . . . I have enough trouble doing my own gig.

[asked why he hides his looks behind strange wigs, fake teeth and girly squeals] I think it's an actor's responsibility to change every time. Not only for himself and the people he's working with, but for the audience. If you just go out and deliver the same dish every time . . . it's meat loaf again . . . you'd get bored. I'd get bored.

We had been shooting [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)] for about a month, and I was beginning to get nervous because there weren't any phone calls. I called my agent and asked, "Has no one called from the studio to complain or say, 'Hey, what's he doing?' or 'Hey, he's freaking us out?' " And when she said, "No", I thought, "Christ, I'm not doing enough! Something's wrong!" Then some of the studio brass came over to the set, and they were sitting in my trailer and I was all decked out as Wonka with the little bangs. And I just had to know. So I said, "Okay, who was the first one, when you started seeing the dailies, that got a little worried?" And there was this beautiful 30-second silence. And [Warner Bros. president] Alan Horn finally said, "Yeah, that was me". I felt better instantly.

[on Gene Wilder's comment on the remake of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory(1971)] Hearing about that was disappointing, but I can understand where he's coming from, I guess. The one thing I didn't understand was that apparently he was quoted as saying, "Well, they just did this for money". Well, hey, man, where have you been? When didn't they ever do anything for money? Nobody's ever made a film in the history of cinema where they weren't expecting some return on their dough.

[on his daughter, Lily-Rose] I see this amazing, beautiful, pure angel-thing wake up in the morning, and nothing can touch that. She is the only reason to wake up in the morning, the only reason to take a breath. Everything else is checkers.

[on director Tim Burton] He can ask me everything. If he wants me to have sex with an aardvark in one of his next movies, then I will do that.

[on reactions to his directorial debut] You know what was traumatizing, what was very, very strange in terms of this film I directed a few years back called The Brave (1997). Well, I guess I wouldn't say traumatizing, but I would say weird: at the premiere of the film the reception of it was beyond any expectation that I had. I had no idea I'd be looking at [Bernardo Bertolucci] or [Michelangelo Antonioni] sitting there watching my film. And then to receive the applause that my film got, it was so incredible. And then the next day the majority of the American press just turn it into this horrible thing. Once again, everybody is entitled to their opinion, man. Maybe it's a bad film? Maybe it's a good film? To me it's just a film. It's something I needed to make.

I started out as a guitarist in the early '80s. I hooked up with a guy who idolized James Dean and he gave me a copy of the Dean biography, "The Mutant King", which I thought was really interesting. While reading the book I watched Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and I thought, "Wow, this guy really has something", and I was hooked. I wasn't really into acting at the time - but James Dean was the catalyst.

I don't have a mental picture of the houses we lived in because there were so many.

[on being an uncle] My sister Christi had a baby when I was 17, and I had just heard about crib death. The horrible thing was that it wasn't understood. For some unknown reason the baby would stop breathing. So I would sneak into where the baby was sleeping and put my hand in her crib, hold her little finger, and I'd sleep on the floor like that. It was stupid, I'm sure. But I thought the warmth of my hand might help, that maybe if she felt my pulse it would remind her to breathe.

Marlon Brando is maybe the greatest actor of the last two centuries. But his mind is much more important than the acting thing. The way that he looks at things, doesn't judge things, the way that he assesses things. He's as important as, uh... who's important today? Jesus, not many people... Stephen Hawking!

There's nothing - you know - nothing else like music. Nothing that touches us on that, uh, that deep level. Music can open up so many emotions that we didn't know we had. It's the magical thing about musicals, you know, on the stage or on film or whatever. Love songs. They work so well because music touches us, emotionally, where words alone can't.

As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition, too.

Johnny Depp personal quotes

Anything I've done up till 27 May, 1999 was kind of an illusion, existing without living. My daughter, the birth of my daughter, gave me life.

[on the money he makes] You use your money to buy privacy because during most of your life you aren't allowed to be normal.

I don't pretend to be captain weird. I just do what I do.

[on Vincent Price] One of the most incredible moments I've ever had was sitting in Vincent's trailer . . . I was showing him this first-edition book I have of the complete works of [Edgar Allan Poe], with really amazing illustrations. Vincent was going nuts over the drawings, and he started talking about The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). Then he closed the book and began to recite it to me in this beautiful voice, filling the room with huge sounds. Such passion! I looked in the book later, and it was verbatim. Word perfect. It was a great moment. I'll never forget that.

The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants.

One of the greatest things I've ever seen happen was the morning I opened the newspaper and it said that some very powerful government officials had decided to change the name of "french fries" to "freedoom fries" and "french toast" to "freedom toast". It was impressive. I wanted to write a letter to them just to thank them, just for proving globally that they were absolute imbeciles.

America is dumb. It's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive. My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out.

Taken in context, what I was saying was that, compared to Europe, America is a very young country and we are still growing as a nation. It is a shame that the metaphor I used was taken so radically out of context and slung about irresponsibly by the news media. There was no anti-American sentiment. In fact, it was just the opposite. I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country and for this I am eternally grateful.

France and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing, though, is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it. I'm afraid that the American culture is a disaster.

[on his character in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)] Captain Jack Sparrow is like a cross between Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew.

I can remember when I finished Edward Scissorhands (1990), looking in the mirror as the girl was doing my make-up for the last time and thinking -- it was like the 90th or 89th day of shooting -- and I remember looking and going, "Wow, this is it. I'm saying goodbye to this guy, I'm saying goodbye to Edward Scissorhands". You know, it was kind of sad. But in fact, I think they're all still somehow in there.

With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.

The only gossip I'm interested in is things from the Weekly World News
'Woman's bra bursts, 11 injured.' That kind of thing.

Eli Wallach said Yes I won the BAFTA I thought the British were very intelligent

Here are some personal quotes of  Eli Wallach

I was at the premiere of The Holiday (2006), a movie I did with Kate Winslet. Surrounded by all these beautiful young women. And after they left, [wife Anne Jackson] comes up and says to me, "Honestly, I don't know what they see in you.".

Well, I go to the theater today, and its curtain - there is no curtain in this play; the lights go down and go up - and we start. And I live this character for two hours. There are only two of us in the play. And It's a complete experience.

I never lost my appetite for acting.

Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck.

I've learned that life is very tricky business: Each person needs to find what they want to do in life and not be dissuaded when people question them.

But Clint I love, because Clint was my mentor. I knew nothing about making an Italian movie.

When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk.

When I saw the movie, I said, I wish I had heard the music. I would have ridden the horse differently.
And that movie was underrated - Nuts - because it deals with a terrible subject, but It's very well done.

And I did Batman, too. I did Mr. Freeze. I get more mail for him than anything I've ever done.

Even if I don't want to slow down, I'm slowing down.

All of these stories bounced around in my mind for a long time.

But I went to the University of Texas in the 30s, and while there I learned to ride. Mostly polo ponies.

And then the first was The Misfits, which I enjoyed very much, with Marilyn and Gable.

Everyone thinks acting is easy. It's far from easy, but it's the most gratifying thing I do.

I love to tell stories and this is my way of getting them down on paper.

I always end up being the evil one, and I wouldn't hurt a fly.

I never dreamed I would do Westerns.

I was an original member of the Actors' Studio.

I always wanted to tell stories and act.

The big secret in acting is listening to people.

My first Western was called The Magnificent Seven.

I've worked with wonderful actors like Marlon Brando and Henry Fonda.

One thing changes every evening: It's the audience, and I'm working my magic. I'm always learning from it.

The trouble with that movie is that you had to see Chinatown the day before you saw The Two Jakes.

What is it in my makeup that makes me grab any offer and fly around the world? Will I ever be satisfied? Can't I ever just rest?

I met my wife and, for the next ten years, we did no films at all. She did the first movie and then I did several after. My first movie was written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Kazan and was called Baby Doll.

This country has a complex about age. It's unbelievable. If you're over thirty, you've had it in this country.

Well, I've maybe gotten 200 requests for interviews about Marilyn, and I just decided I'm gonna do my own.

Yes, I won the BAFTA. I thought the British were very intelligent.

Well, I was getting a lot of money then, and I wasn't getting any Hollywood films, so I just did those. I'd always do a play in between. Whenever I ran low on funds, I'd always rush off to do a movie somewhere.

Rachel McAdams personal quotes

As strange as movie making is, doing love scenes for the first time with someone you've never even said hello to does work in terms of having a fresh quality to a relationship.

It takes a lot of time, commitment and a choice. I've chosen this path, but it's not to say I'm not open to love or whatever comes my way. You never close doors.

The craziest thing I've ever done to get a guy's attention? I admit I stalked someone. I showed up at a restaurant where I knew the guy worked, and we were actually good friends and had lost touch, and I pretended that I didn't know he worked there. And then ran into him and, "Oh my God, you work here? I had no idea." It's the most manipulative thing I've done in my entire life, but it all worked out very well, so I have no regrets.

The most romantic thing, a lovely boy bought me a dress once. He got my measurements, actually they were from The Notebook (2004) and I had them sitting somewhere, and he found them and bought me this dress, tailor-made, this beautiful little black cocktail dress. And I thought that was very, very classy.

I want to try a lot of things that I haven't tried. You know, I did a thriller (Red Eye(2005)) after this, because it was so different and it was a genre I hadn't worked in yet. Then I did a beautiful family ensemble drama. And next? I don't know. I might go off to do a small independent in New York. I'm not sure. The quality of material is important but, basically, I'm open to anything. I like to stay open to anything.

A friend of mine had this great theory about the Teletubbies (1997), that it's preparing us for being mindless. And getting us ready for living in an underground world. When they build the underground world because we can no longer breathe the air that it will look like Teletubbie land.

I don't know, I like to go on really different types of dates. Going someplace new or some new part of the city, something that's not your average thing. Something where you just go have an adventure together.

I guess you have to be really open to your acting partners and believe in the story.

I have a certain curiosity for life that drives me and propels me forward.

I once made a (it was supposed to be a 30-minute) bean salad that took me like 6 hours.

Megan Fox personal quotes

[on working with Michael Bay] Michael Bay's name, if it's attached to a script, you know it's going to be a huge blockbuster released in the summer, with jets flying over at the premiere and all that kind of stuff. So, I knew it was going to be a huge movie.

[on George Clooney] He's sarcastic, and he has a different girlfriend constantly. It's considered charismatic. He's like this James Bond, sexy dude. The older he gets, the better he gets. It's a double standard. To be outspoken, or different at all, is a problem for women. As soon as you curse or, God forbid, make some sort of sexual reference that's a joke, you're labeled a party girl. They don't do that with men, so I feel it would be a lot easier.

[Director Michael Bay] doesn't like really skinny actresses. He's been traumatized by them for some reason in the past. So I always try to put on eight to ten pounds before [filming], and I'm always the fattest I've ever been when making a Transformers (2007) movie.

[on her Marilyn Monroe tattoo] I committed to having her face on my arm for the rest of my life, so I have to be a pretty big fan.

Wonder Woman is lame. She flies around in an invisible jet, but she's not invisible. I don't get it.

Look, I'm not a lesbian, I just think that all humans are born with the ability to be attracted to both sexes. I mean, I could see myself in a relationship with a girl. Olivia Wilde is so sexy she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox with my bare hands. She's mesmerizing.

Zac Efron is my obsession, we're the same person. We're not actually here, it's like [Janet Jackson] and Michael Jackson. He just puts on his wig and a dress, and it's me, and you don't know that. It's one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

Boys in their twenties are a waste of time. They have nothing to offer conversationally; they're immature. I feel like I have a better shot with someone in his thirties.

When I go to a party, I always feel like I'm chum. Like my agent is just chumming the waters until I'm circled by all these dudes.

People assume that I'm really promiscuous. There's a difference between being very sexual and being promiscuous. I'm not promiscuous. I'm extraordinarily sexual within a monogamous relationship. Nothing's off-limits. But that has nothing to do with experiencing a lot of people. I've only had two boyfriends my whole life.

If I ever lose a role because of my tattoos, I'll quit Hollywood and go to work at Costco.

[on Shia LaBeouf] He probably is my favourite person in the entire world. Shia makes me laugh harder than anybody I've ever known in my life. I end up crying or almost peeing myself every time I'm with him. So he's just my favourite - I love you, Shia! And he's really super-handsome!

[on Angelina Jolie] I'm actually frightened of her, I haven't had the opportunity to meet her and I try to avoid that because I'm afraid. Angelina's a powerful person and I bet she would eat me alive. I guess that is why I'm afraid of her. There have been a lot of films I've had to pass on because I don't want people thinking I'm trying to emulate her.

When I moved to Los Angeles I had no money. I remember needing to shave my legs, and I didn't even have enough money to buy disposable razors. So I'd wear pants all the time.

Women are expected to be conformist automatons in L.A. but in Britain you can be more yourself and people will take you on face value.

I don't trust male intentions, usually, because they don't approach me for intellectual conversation.

Hollywood is the most superficial thing you could possibly be a part of and if I weren't attractive I wouldn't be working at all.

Scarlett Johansson personal quotes

I'm so tired of hearing casting directors ask if I have a sore throat. The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive, it's unusual... those people have always been close to my heart.

[commenting of why she was glad that Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) was a small foreign production] It would be hellish to have the pressure of putting on a Hollywood ending or putting in a scene where Vermeer sees Griet washing her breasts.

I always check in the mirror to make sure nothing is see-through.

I have a lot of actor friends who worked with their parents closely and have had really horrible experiences. They end up suing or being emancipated. The wonderful thing about my mom [who is also her manager] is that she completely respects my creative weirdness and supports any decision I make.

As long as people keep buying tabloids, they'll keep harassing people in the public eye. They'll make up stories.

On David Hasselhoff, after they had both worked on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie(2004): I so fancied him when I was young, that to see my name on the credits next to his makes me go all girly. He was a hunk back in those days.

I have an obsessive character. I manicure my nails at three in the morning because nobody else can do it the right way. Maybe that's the secret to my success.

It's a great thing to get older and learn. I don't feel bound in any way by how many years I've lived. I identify just as much with my 86-year-old grandmother as I do with my sister.

People forget what it's like to be a child. When you're a child actress, people sometimes regress into being obnoxious and patronizing. But there's no reason to dumb things down just because you're working with kids.

What I respect most in people is naturalness and authenticity. I like to be able to see into their soul. I aspire to being a truthful person.

The most precious moment in life is when you're about to fall in love. You're lying in bed together and he's gazing at you and you're gazing at him and there's a sense that something truly wondrous is about to happen. It's a nervous moment - but it's exhilarating.

I am very independent. I can look after myself but I still need a lot of love and care.

I don't talk about my personal relationships, it always ends up kicking you in the face. But I've read a lot of things about myself and think, "Wow! That girl sounds really saucy.".

I think that I sort of see other actresses are kind of proud of the way they look and show it off. That's never really been my style. I really don't think that it's disgusting or wrong, if you're 18 you're 18, it's your body, it's your right to show yourself, however, I don't really take a part in that. I like to look nice, but I think that there's ways of doing it that are more tasteful than just wearing a bikini wherever you go.

I don't know if I've got swept up. It's so shocking when you hear that Calvin Klein wants you for their new campaign. You're like, 'who me?'. I guess you have to decide where you draw the line between you saying, this is fun, pretty and fabulous, and being over-exposed.

Well, you put a little piece of yourself into every character that you do. Even if you're playing some psychotic person, which of course I'm not, some part of you is in that character and it's hopefully believable. I always come back to the fact that my own instinct is better than something I build in my mind.

Tons of that stuff comes to me, but a lot of it is awful. All these teenage slaying movies, and movies about girls that have deformities that become cheerleaders and then marry the prom king!

I always had the chance to do whatever I wanted to do, my parents were very open about that. Acting has been a passion of mine. I wanted to be in musicals as a kid, and took tap dance, so for me it's a dream come true, my childhood was filled with things that I loved to do, and also very normal things: I lived in New York, I have a family life and went to a regular school. If anything, I look back and think, "Wow, I did a lot of things that a lot of people don't get to do in their lifetime.".

It's a place of solace. I love London, it's an amazing city. I've met some wonderful people there and I also have some family there. I'm from New York, so I feel very at home in London. It's like a metropolitan breeding ground for culture, art, music and diversity. It's a beautiful city, with beautiful history. In Hollywood, it's hard to step outside of the circle once you're in it. But in London I was really moved by how accepted I felt there. There was definitely less need to wear my big sunglasses!

[on filming The Island (2005)] I came home and I thought I was going to die. I was in agony. I had muscles that had atrophied. I couldn't run any longer and it was only the first day. But, actually, Ewan was in the same boat. He had black and blue marks all over him. So, it wasn't so bad since someone else was in agony.

I don't think there's any kind of preparation for sudden celebrity. I think you almost have this slight nervous breakdown when that kind of media attention happens. I mean, you're doing the same kind of thing that you do all the time, only you have to make these weird adjustments. Like, you're buying a slice of pizza and somebody's outside photographing you which is weird - that's not normal! It's very uncomfortable.

Everyone in Hollywood is so damn skinny and you constantly feel like you're not skinny enough. But I have 'fat days' and I accept that I'm never going to be rail thin. It's hard not to feel pressure in this industry and I already use anti-aging products on my skin. I try not to let the pressure get to me but Los Angeles is a very hard place to be unless you have people here that love you. It can be very, very lonely, and it can eat you up if you don't take care of yourself.

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