Jeremy Renner Quotes

I love my small town, and I love going back there and supporting the community. But I could not have stayed there. No way.

I think that'll always be there for [Clint] Barton, right? You have real life, and then you have fight life. And that's the character that I love now - discovering that in him makes him a very sort of accessible Avenger. That'll always be there, I'm sure. And it certainly plays in this one.

I need to react to a script, to feel strongly about it in some way. And I need it to be a complex character for sure. And also, I think a lot about what kind of audience there is for the film, what they're looking for and ways to connect with them in the playing of a character.

Other people can think ahead all they want. I just focus on the task at hand and try to move on.

I'm able to really enjoy the wonderful things happening to me and that's a great blessing.

I was very shy when I was younger. But I did have a terrible temperament. I would get angry very quickly, but the rest of the time I was this big goofball, playing the drums in a band and making out with girls.

I can't totally talk about why we divide, but ... it's interesting because we're doing this scene today that's sort of the pinnacle of that. Two gangs fighting against each other, ultimately knowing that ... ya know, it's like friends fighting friends. To me it's fun, personally.

I'm a simple, simple man.

I'm not very good at taking compliments. It's better than getting slapped in the face, I suppose.

I don't do well with expectation in my life. All I can do is do the best that I can do.

Getting to play with Thor's hammer while he stroked my bow

I've got to be active in life, and it's the same when I'm doing stunts in a movie: I'll do anything.

I think there's a great connection between these two characters for sure. I mean, I don't know if she's coming over for dinner on the Barton ranch ...

The most experience I had in the criminology field is playing a thug as an actor. That was my first paid job. The police academy at the college was paying people to reenact the calls that potential cops would get. So I got to play thugs and people who were unruly.

Accents can be a great tool to tell a story - but if you do it wrong, it pulls you right out of the movie.

I'll always build houses.

I want to be a good human being.

I know it's a cliche but I never wanted to be famous. I don't believe anybody wants to be famous.

I like repressed characters. That gives me a lot of freedom to make a lot of different choices through subtleties.

People find themselves in ruts all the time. You're in a complacent lifestyle where you work 9 to 5 and then you add a mortgage and kids. You feel trapped, but guess what, brother? You constructed that life. If you're OK with it, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you've got unease, then you've got to make a change.

When you get praise from someone that you really admire it's really surreal.

Architecture and building is about how you get around the obstacles that are presented to you. That sometimes determines how successful you'll be: How good are you at going around obstacles?

I'm attracted to those kinds of roles that could be good or could be bad, and you just don't know.

I think cinema should provoke thoughts, sure, but using it as I soapbox I think is the wrong place. I never want to be part of something like that, where there's an agenda there that's not about telling a story, where its someone getting on a soapbox and preaching their own beliefs onto somebody.

I will never be in the stock market. It's just gambling. I'm a gambler, but I'll gamble on the practicality of things.

You have a great road map when you play somebody that exists. That's the amazing thing. But then you have great limitations from that road map. It's hard to deviate from it creatively as an actor. It's like, "Oh wait, he'd never do that."

I'm not violent.

I know what I like and what I want, and I can sit and enjoy every 10 minutes that go by. And truly enjoy it.

I only scream and scratch when something's only 'really good' or 'good', I want to be great, or let's go home.

I think it's great to be a part of a franchise that is successful. Any franchise is successful because it's a continuation and people have seen it.

I want my personal life to be personal.

I guess I just have one of those resting faces that makes me look like I want to beat you up.

You love everything don't ya, but ya know what, as you get older, the things you love so much might not seem so special anymore. Like your jack-in-the-box, maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. The older you get, the fewer things you really love. By the time you're my age maybe it's only one or two things, actually it might only be one.

I have a bad sweet tooth. I'm pretty good when I have to eat well for work, but otherwise, I could eat a whole roll of raw cookie dough.

I'll take any risk there is.

People love to yammer on about things that aren't real.

Not every actor gives their life to do this job. Some just do it as a job. Well, it's my life.

So there's that, and then there's always things you can do with the tips. Except for this, what they call the arrow tips, they'll all be non-lethal cause again we're not trying kill anybody, just sort of take control of the situation. They'll probably throw in a lot of gimmicks with the tips and trick arrows, and things like that. And ya the new, cool ...

What matters to me is learning and growing, and getting to do what I love to do. As long as I can do that, I'm happy.

I don't change. The things around me change.

It takes a lot out of you to do a stage play, but I'd love to do that. I'd love to continue to do challenging material, whatever shape or form that comes in.

The movie business is very difficult but the music business is just impossible. So I'll play in bands and record and play songs with other people, but for me it's a form of expression that all I need is me. I don't need cameras or agents, I can just have a piano and sing and feel totally verified.

I do music because I can just pick up my guitar and sing, and completely satisfy, instant gratification. I don't need a script, I don't people, I don't need anything, cameras, I just have myself and my guitar, or keyboard.

I want to not do anything I've done before. That can come in any form.

I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative I'd be dead.

I don't want to play a bad guy who doesn't have a bit of good in him.

There's too much down time making movies. That leads to boredom. And that leads to trouble.

I have a hard time saying "no" if it's right. I don't say "no" to say "no." I said "no" when I didn't have a pot to piss in. I still said "no" to big money jobs because they didn't make creative sense to me.

I lived by the candlelight for two years because I couldn't afford power. It was nice and romantic at the time, but if you can't afford power you're pretty broke. You endure it.

Yeah, yeah, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye type of thing. There's that kind of irreverence to it the humor and in the reality of what's really going on that plays into this movie.

I feel connected to that idea of wanting to belong to something, to have a sense of purpose as a man on the planet.