Heath Ledger Quotes

Never give up on what makes you smile

The Oscars are a really strange concept to me, that films and acting can be competing against each other. We're not running the same race. It's like we're all doing different sports in fact.

I'm shy. People get confused. They think as an actor you can get up and be confident on the screen. Why aren't you like this in normal life? Why can't you act in your social life? 'Because I can't!'

I'm just not one of those naturally funny, relaxed actors who enjoy the spotlight and are so good at it.

My nervous energy is usually the easiest form of energy to tap into.

In my opinion, New York City police officers are brave.

You see, in their last moments people show you who they really are.

I feel like I'm wasting time if I repeat myself.

Want know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker and a fiend. And one night he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that. Not one bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. He turns to me, and he says, 'why so serious?' He comes at me with the knife. 'Why so serious?!'. He sticks the blade in my mouth. 'Let's put a smile on that face!' And why so serious?

My mom and my dad never pushed me into performing. They never prohibited me from trying anything, or being anything. They never restricted me in any way. For which I'll be forever grateful.

I only do this because I'm having fun. The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away. I wasn't going to have fun doing a teen movie again. I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. I don't. I don't even want to spend the rest of my youth doing this in this industry. There's so much more I want to discover.

I didn't want to raise my child in Hollywood.

The first memory I have, anyway, I guess - I think it was my second birthday and the cake came out with the candles and I was very excited and I was, like, "Oh! A cake!" and then my cousin blew out the candles. I was so disappointed. It just broke my heart. And so that's stamped in my brain.

I'm born to be a father. And I've been looking forward to this all my life.

Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair.

See I’m not a monster, I’m just ahead of the curve.

When anything is blocking my head or there's worry in my life, I just go sit on Mars or something and look back here at Earth. All you can see is this tiny speck. You don't see the fear. You don't see the pain. You don't see thought. It's just one solid speck. Then nothing really matters. It just doesn't.

If you make decisions based upon people's reactions or judgments then you make really boring choices.

In the birthing process, you come out just realizing how stupid and weak men are! I mean, I might as well not have been in there, we're useless!

My life is together, both professionally and socially.

If you are just safe about the choices you make, you don't grow.

I have never had great expectations of my performance or of a film. I try not to think about the outcome. If you look that far ahead, it sort of taints your choices as an actor. I try as hard as I can to believe that no one is ever going to see it and that it's not even a movie. Then you can allow yourself to bare more. Then, once a project is done, I tend to forget about it until it comes out.

You learn more about yourself through your child, I guess.

I like to do something I fear.

I'm very comfortable with horses. I love horses and I have grown up around farm-hands. There's something very universal about anyone who's on horseback night and day. When you get off that horse, you are still walking as if there's still a horse between your legs.

Growing up in Australia, you never feel like you're going to live beyond that place. You wake up and you go to the beach, and you do your homework. You're just a kid.

I apologize for my terrible interview skills.

I do think that drugs and alcohol have been glorified and exoticized in such a way that it gets into the art world.

I like to set up obstacles and defeat them.

I've never had high expectations of my work and I certainly am not going to let that plague my thoughts. I'm just going to continue to choose what feels right for me at the time and go with it.

When I first started acting, I was just crap.

I like to see films that come out with lower budgets because you're forced into using your imagination. You don't have everything at your fingertips. You have to create it from scratch.

I wasn't going to have fun doing a teen movie again.

I feel like I've never been in a film that people have liked before.

May I ask your name, my lady? Or perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces.

I never want to feel like I've achieved my goal. It's like Chinese farmers. They never admit that it's a good season. They feel like they'll be punished.