Clive Owen quotes

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Thinking #People #Lost Friendship

I'm always very aware of the physical challenges of work. I train much more than I did when I was in my twenties, and I've done some very physical films, and I always get properly prepared for them and get as fit as I can.
-- Clive Owen

#Challenges #Twenties #Done

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

#Drama #School #Europe

Something I don't like seeing in other people is naked ambition, when somebody is really pushing hard to get to where they want to be. That's the way I look at that word - like you must be stepping on someone to get there. And I've never been comfortable with that.
-- Clive Owen

#Ambition #People #Naked

I just like to keep challenging myself, keep it varied. It's a craft, and I'm constantly trying to learn and get better at it.
-- Clive Owen

#Challenges #Get Better #Trying

I'm competitive with myself, not at the expense of everything around me. I never wanted to be a movie star. I just wanted to act.
-- Clive Owen

#Stars #Movie Star #Expenses

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

#Family #Inspiring #Parenting

As far as career goes, make sure you're in it for the right reasons - and make sure that the work itself is the most important thing.
-- Clive Owen

#Careers #Important #Reason

The sexiest part of the body is the eyes. That's what I believe.
-- Clive Owen

#Believe #Eye #Body

I treat any scene the same - dialogue, action - you're still creating something in character. It's all acting, fighting.
-- Clive Owen

#Character #Fighting #Creating

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

#Film

I was not a very fearful kid, really.
-- Clive Owen

#Kids #Fearful

I would never give anybody any advice about anything.
-- Clive Owen

#Giving #Advice

I always used to say to myself, I'm going to die of lung cancer. That's the choice I'm making.
-- Clive Owen

#Cancer #Choices #Used

I can't remember ever being involved in a fight in a movie where I haven't done most of it.
-- Clive Owen

#Fighting #Done #Remember

I couldn't bear a marriage in which one partner hinges on the other.
-- Clive Owen

#Bears #Partners

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Thinking #Play #Actors

I don't like it when people are trying too hard. That goes for clothes, for acting, for everything. It's just not good when it seems like you're making too much of an effort.
-- Clive Owen

#Clothes #People #Effort

There's not a big gun culture in England at all still.
-- Clive Owen

#Gun #Culture #England

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

#Luck #Elements

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Workout #Doe #Stuff

You're always dealing with emotions as an actor.
-- Clive Owen

#Actors #Emotion

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Real #Book #Numbers

I want to go anywhere and everywhere and explore as much as I can.
-- Clive Owen

#Want

Without faith, without belief in something, what are we?
-- Clive Owen

#Belief

I think anybody who bets on horses and says they win is probably a liar.
-- Clive Owen

#Horse #Liars #Winning

I never really look at life and worry about missed opportunities,
-- Clive Owen

#Opportunity #Worry #Looks

The further you run from your sins, the more exhausted you are when they catch up to you.
-- Clive Owen

#Running #Exhausted #Sin

I did it for the money. But its not worth much if you cant face yourself in the mirror. Respect is the ultimate currency.
-- Clive Owen

#Mirrors #Faces #Currency

As a teenager I was crazy about David Bowie. He was a huge inspiration for me. I dressed a little bit crazily in school and dyed my hair every colour under the sun.
-- Clive Owen

#Crazy #Teenager #Inspiration

I like to play characters that are convincing, that aren't just straightforward and nice.
-- Clive Owen

#Nice #Character #Play

I have a problem with a lot of men's fragrances because they are very strong. Somebody somewhere thinks that masculine means powerful smells, and I find them overbearing and not very pleasant.
-- Clive Owen

#Strong #Powerful #Mean

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

#Thinking #Important #Watches

I do a lot better if I sit around and think about a character for a couple of months.
-- Clive Owen

#Couple #Character #Thinking

Good dialogue is very important.
-- Clive Owen

#Important #Dialogue

I dread karaoke. I hate karaoke. I can't sing - that is why.
-- Clive Owen

#Hate #Karaoke #I Hate

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Character #Ideas #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.
-- Clive Owen

#Writing #Years #Insane

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

#Writing #Thinking #People

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.
-- Clive Owen

#People #Important #Age

I live in London and I love living in a gun free environment and long may it continue.
-- Clive Owen

#Gun #Long #May

For me really good acting is about subtext.
-- Clive Owen

#Acting #Subtext

For me, London is and always will be home.
-- Clive Owen

#Home #London

For some people, an event happens and they are thrown into a tabloid feeding ground.
-- Clive Owen

#People #Events #Tabloids

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

#Film #Shots #Honestly

I do wear suits all the time.
-- Clive Owen

#Suits

I feel for those 19-year-olds who get thrust into the limelight that young.
-- Clive Owen

#Years #Limelight #Young

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

#Thinking #Directors

I'm a huge fan of 'The Exorcist.'
-- Clive Owen

#Fans #Exorcist

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

#Roles #Actors #Research

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Stupid #Doe #Journalist

Belfast during the Troubles looked like a different world.
-- Clive Owen

#Different #World #Trouble

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

#Actors #Rooms #Sportsman

I always want my options to be open.
-- Clive Owen

#Want

I love to mix it up. I love to keep doing different things.
-- Clive Owen

#Different

I was at the birth of my two girls.
-- Clive Owen

#Girl #Two #Birth

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

#Home #Crowds #My Family

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

#Wind #Driving #Idiot

Action scenes are not that different from other scenes.
-- Clive Owen

#Different #Action #Scene

As I get older, I've been having a better and better time.
-- Clive Owen

Audiences can be very judgmental.
-- Clive Owen

#Judgmental #Audience

I'm the git in the family.
-- Clive Owen

I've been very fortunate with the scripts I've had and the people I worked with.
-- Clive Owen

#People #Scripts

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

#Writing #Character #Lovely

Rudeness can make me angry.
-- Clive Owen

#Rudeness #Make Me Angry #Angry

I am a big soccer fan, and a very big Liverpool fan.
-- Clive Owen

#Soccer #Fans #Bigs

Jewelery isn't really my thing, but I've always got my eye on people's watches.
-- Clive Owen

#Eye #People #Watches

The financial implode is bound to be reflected in the movies that are being made, there's no question.
-- Clive Owen

#Financial #Made

I was very keen on playing a victim.
-- Clive Owen

#Victim

I think it's dangerous to get into ideas of planning careers.
-- Clive Owen

#Thinking #Careers #Ideas

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Struggle #Worry #Actors

I don't think you necessarily identify and believe in the motifs of the character, but you have to want to play it and want to commit to the lines.
-- Clive Owen

#Believe #Character #Thinking

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Kids #Parenting #Perfect

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Actors #Crafts #Young

I guess I'm not that metrosexual. My bathroom cabinet is hardly overflowing with products. I only really have my stuff for shaving. I can't honestly say I moisturise, though I probably should.
-- Clive Owen

#Shaving #Stuff #Cabinets

If you are making a script based on a book it can be frustrating going back to the source novel, because you're turning the story into a totally different thing; the narrative of film is different from that of a book.
-- Clive Owen

#Book #Different #Stories

The thing about Hemingway that people forget is that all the stuff he did was at a time where people weren't traveling that much. At 19 he travels to Italy. He goes to the Spanish Civil War. He goes to China, he goes to Africa so at that time to travel that much is really incredible.
-- Clive Owen

#War #People #Stuff

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

#Shooting #Action #Clear

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Horse #Kings #Lessons

Death frees the beast.
-- Clive Owen

#Death #Dying #Beast

Sometimes you find your destiny on the road you took to avoid it.
-- Clive Owen

#Destiny #Sometimes #Your Destiny

I really believe you can carry yourself in such a way that people don't notice you.
-- Clive Owen

#Believe #People #Way

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

#Careers #England #Certain

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.
-- Clive Owen

#Drama #Character #Play

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

#Botox #Done #Actresses

One of the things I'm most proud of about my career is the fact I've managed to keep options open.
-- Clive Owen

#Careers #Proud #Facts

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

#Careers #Advice #Pieces

Obviously, I'm attracted to heavier movies.
-- Clive Owen