Carey Mulligan Quotes

It's funny that you can murder someone horribly and graphically and disturbingly in a horror film, and it's not an NC-17, but if you put a naked man on screen, everyone freaks out.

On film sets I can see everyone, and I really still find that so difficult.

When you idolise someone, or you hold someone in such high regard, you just want them to be everything that you think there are - and when they are it's just lovely.

I love New York - maybe more than Los Angeles or London. I think I'm happiest in New York.

My agent in London told me, after Never Let Me Go, because I loved doing that so much, "If you're on a lucky streak and you're doing well, you should only take a part, if you can't bear the idea of anyone else doing it." That's been the case since then, with Drive and Shame and the play (The Seagull), and the stuff that's going on, like Gatsby. I would have been devastated, if I hadn't gotten those jobs.

It's so silly isn't it? how we grown men take up trout angling not simply to pursue trout but to find some place, some special place, where we feel at ease. a place to belong. Forces, not forms, persist: energy is spent and endures; time does not tick, it flows. God loves a man that smells of trout water and mountain meadows. Which way's heaven, you suppose? Follow the trail and keep close to the stream.

From Wall Street to Drive was almost a year, when I didn't do anything 'cause there was just nothing that was significantly different from the things I'd done before. There was just nothing to explore.

I've always played characters that were younger than myself.

There's always the things that you think are going to be tough. I've been nude once, and I was like, "Oh, that's going to be a nightmare," and actually that was fine.

I'm more the sort of person who doesn't like hugging strangers because we don't know each other, so we shouldn't.

Remakes are a difficult thing 'cause some people feel very protective of the original.

I want to be in 'Glee,' but I'm told I'm not famous enough to be a cameo yet.

I was trying to find ways of not being pigeon-holed like that. I didn't want to be tied down by my accent. I wanted to play Americans. I don't want to ever be doing the same thing twice, and I just didn't want to repeat myself.

It makes it easier, if you can't do an American accent. I don't know. It's different. I played a character in Never Let Me Go where the script for my character was very sparse, and I enjoyed it. With Never Let Me Go, I had a whole book written from my character's point of view, so I always knew where I was. But, with Ryan [Gosling], it was just easy. He's such a brilliant actor and he is so prepared. He doesn't have to warm himself up to be in a scene. He's just in it. It draws you in, in a way.

I probably dreamt about running off to America or something when I was 16 because it just seemed like I was studying algebra and going, 'What am I going to use this for?

I've never been obsessed with celebrity or star-struck or anything. I met Penelope Cruz when we were in Toronto, who I think is a goddess and an unbelievable actress, and she introduced herself. As she walked away from the table I had to take a deep breath, which was strange because I've never had that with anyone.

In London, people can be so... well, it's not even a case of people being unkind or unfriendly. You just don't make any contact in London. You go from A to B with your eyes on the pavement.

I want to play the fake child on 'To Catch A Predator.' No, wait! I want to play the Leaf Man!

You can spend an entire day walking around in New York, whereas in L.A., it always ends at some point because you have to find a way to get home.

I am committed to helping Alzheimer's Society in any way I can. My family and I rely on the help of organisations like Alzheimer's Society to help us understand the disease and guide us in the care of my grandmother. It's been a privilege to meet so many people with dementia.

I'm not going to work for the sake of working. I'll work, if I'm extraordinarily lucky enough to continue having the same opportunities, but it will be based on whatever is there. If there's nothing around, then I'll go home and make carrot cake for awhile.

I never get recognised here in London, which I like. Once a year, someone comes up to me and asks if I am 'so-and-so's niece' because they think they recognise me from somewhere. I like that.

My character in 'Shame' is an outrageous person. Loud and uncompromising and I begged Steve McQueen to give me the job.

I don't really think about roles - "dream roles." It's always about who's gonna be the person on the screen or who's gonna be the person on the stage and who's gonna direct it and put it all together.

Posing on the red carpet feels like you're selling something that has nothing to do with you. If you do it with someone else, it's like we're saying, 'Oh! We come as a pair! Would you like to buy both of us? We're available for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs!'

I've always been quite careful about what I wanted to do. I've just never wanted to revisit old ground or do something that's easy. I want to do something that I would look at and go, "I don't know what to do!" The most exciting thing is when you're a bit scared, so I'm looking to find something that's really terrifying.

I don't wear a bikini on the beach. I walk around my house in pyjamas. I haven't seen myself naked in the mirror for probably a decade. I'm very prudish.

When I went to the Oscars - the only time I've ever been to the Oscars - a few years ago, I wore this Prada dress covered in cooking utensils. I got drunk at the end of the night and started ripping them off and giving them as presents to people, so that was fun. I'm pretty sure that was the point of it, that's how Miuccia meant for it to go I'm sure.

I don't know why people are so down on the Best Western. They have the best sweet potato fries I've ever had.

It Girl' is such a weird term. It implies I go to parties and drink champagne.

I'd love to do a Paul Greengrass movie, or something like that, that's a character-driven action film. I'd like someone to make me go to the gym every day, and all that stuff. I don't know. Wherever the good characters are, I tend to try to get a job. It was nice because this was dipping my toe in the action genre. Maybe I might put my foot in, next time.

The toughest part of acting is never a single thing. It's more like a whole character. I find film really difficult - trying to make it feel like a consistent character when you're filming everything out of order.

I'd like to do a play, but I can't find the right thing. I don't want it to be a starring role. I just want to play a really interesting character.

The minute I get into a hotel room, I scatter my stuff everywhere. It's like a bomb site within a minute. So I suppose that means I'm trying to nest.

I can actually cook one meal now, as opposed to before, when I could cook nothing. My family are very excited.

What doesn't draw you into a Coen Bros. movie. It's amazing. I can't believe it! They're the Coen Bros. It's ridiculous.

Those with dementia are still people and they still have stories and they still have character and they're all individuals and they're all unique. And they just need to be interacted with on a human level.

I wanted to be a musical theatre actress - I wanted to play Sally Bowles, forever and ever always.

With theatre especially, you don't want to do it unless you love it - there's no way you can pull it off, making people happy, making yourself happy for 12 weeks or whatever.

I grew up with an older brother, so I'm pretty good at being bashed around.

I'm not great at having my picture taken and I don't enjoy that side of it very much but I enjoy being with my friends and it's nice to have a reunion.

When you start playing a character every day for seven weeks, it suddenly starts becoming easier.

It's actually easier to play a leading role than it is to play a supporting role.

There was an article in the New York Times that said that young men can't maintain healthy relationships because they're so influenced by pornography and what they see on the screen. It's something to be talked about.

Leonardo is the most incredible actor, on the planet, with a couple of people alongside him. Getting to act with him is just [amazing]. I walked away from my audition for that and I couldn't believe that I'd been acting with him. I've worked with amazing people, but my friends freak out that I'm working with him. I freak out in a geeky acting way. They freak out in a starstruck way. He's Leonardo DiCaprio, and his fame is so big. That's a complete tangent about that.

When you do bigger jobs there's more attention and when you film in New York you get loads of paparazzi everywhere. It affects your work because you're trying to think about the person you're acting with and you've got 20 other lenses taking pictures of you at the same time, and it throws you.

I didn't want to do a costume drama. It's a great thing to do, but I've done them, and I didn't want to do the same thing again. Of course, costume dramas can be from all different eras, but at the time, I just felt very sure that I didn't want to be boxed in as an English actress. I wanted to be an actress, rather than an English actress.

I didn't work for a year after Wall Street. I finished that in November, and then it was the following October that I did Drive, so I took a year off. I didn't do anything at all, really. I just hung around.