Clive Owen Quotes

Ultimately, to have a career in movies, to a certain extent, certainly in England, you can't sustain a career in just English movies.

Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.

A huge part of acting in movies is appetite. You do your best work when you've got a lot of appetite and you really want to embrace something. When you get tired, you don't have that hunger.

I do wear suits all the time.

I don't do facials or any of that stuff, but my workout regime does tend to depend on whether I have to take my top off in my next film because otherwise I know I'm too heavy.

I had to ride a horse once. In 'King Arthur.' I said I could ride, but I had to call for lessons on the day the deal was signed. I started out on this little chunky thing and slowly moved up. It was months of work.

If you explode onto the scene at a very young age, there are so many people pulling you in different directions. It takes time to recalibrate and see what's important.

Without faith, without belief in something, what are we?

I'd like to do a film which is funny.

I don't like being consumed by work all the time. I consume myself so much when I do a part that I like to step away from it.

There's certainly a huge element of luck in me ending up where I've ended up.

It's just lovely to be involved in a movie that does go back to the basics - characters and great writing.

Belfast during the Troubles looked like a different world.

Parenthood and family come first for me, and when I'm not working I'm cool with the Teletubbies.

There's something to play if there's conflict going on. Whatever that conflict is, that's where drama is; if the character is grappling with something you've got something to play, there's layers to it.

After drama school I did a seven-month tour of Europe performing in 'Romeo and Juliet.' I played Romeo.

A lot of the projects that I do, I like to be involved with earlier. I just feel that, certainly from an acting point of view, it's easier to do my job, if I'm included in what the intentions are, for why people are doing what they're doing, especially with a director.

I'm English and I'm used to coming from a world of period dramas, where there's a very polite restraint to everything. Everybody's sort of sitting in drawing rooms.

No matter who the character is and how big their role, that each person in the story is a human being and deserves respect. Even if they're in the story for ten seconds, I didn't want you to just see them as this entity passing through that's serving all of the other people.

After writing a page, Hemingway would let it float to the ground. He never crumpled pages - he believed that if you crumpled them, you'd be insane in a year.

I actually really love working with young actors because they're so responsive and instinctive, and it's a much less honed craft that they're employing.

I'm a huge fan of 'The Exorcist.'

Kids before they're 7 or 8 are like little manic obsessives. They become completely hooked on things and they're slightly crazy.

When you are shooting action, there is a satisfying thing because your objectives are very clear.

One of the things I love, more than anything, is jumping around and playing lots of different parts. I love the variety of playing different characters.

You see these actresses who have had Botox or something else done, and it takes you out of the film.

Outside of being home with my family, I prefer a crowd.

You go back to those films of the '40s and '50s and hear the dialogue, the way the people played off each other, the wordplay. I think we've really lost that in movies.

I go home to London in between jobs, and in London, my life has nothing to do with the business. It's a family life, hanging with friends.

I think there is a lot of overexplaining both in writing and acting. People don't need to be hit on the head.

I think that Phil Kaufman is one of the best directors that I have come across.

I'm the git in the family.

When there's an idiot driving crazily in front of you, that can wind the best of you up.

For me really good acting is about subtext.

Very often when you see families it's all perfect and neat, and parenting isn't like that. You do have constant negotiations. Things are ever developing and ever changing, and you constantly have to evaluate how you deal with your kids.

I watch a film and the most important thing to me is what I think of the movie.

I can honestly say I've never chosen a film because where it's shot is convenient.

I've got actor friends who didn't get breaks, who struggle and worry about things that I'm fortunate not to have to worry about.

The idea of goodies and baddies has always fascinated me, and what people consider to be a goodie or a baddie, because I've never seen any of my characters as baddies.

I'm not the kind of actor who goes into exhaustive research for each role.

When you're doing those operation scenes, you not only have to be on top of the dialogue and the rhythm of the dialogue and what's happening dramatically, but you've got to technically get the rhythm right, so that everything is fitting with the dialogue at the right time. And you're performing the operation to the audience that's watching it. Thackery has to present it, as well. In some ways, that's the most challenging.

I never aspired to be anything. What I've done is beyond my wildest.

I'm sort of one of those weird actors who whenever I do a play, I think, "Oh, we should film this." As opposed to have to belt it out of ourselves in a theater auditorium.

A room full of great sportsmen is so much better than a room full of actors.

The worst piece of advice I've gotten in my whole career is from somebody who said, Remember, it's all about likeability.

I always want my options to be open.

I've done a number of things based on real people or true stories or based on books, and I'm a great believer that you have to be true to the script.

I find sometimes that if you do too many takes, it starts to become meaningless to me. It is hard to sustain it for me. I don't want to do too many.