Robert Downey Quotes

If I was a lawyer, I'd be my own best client. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

There are some parents who have really done it right and told their kid, 'You know, we have this dough, none of this is for you. You have to get your own.' ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Im thinking of buying a monkey. Then I think, Why stop at one? I don't like being limited in that way. Therefore, I'm considering a platton of monkeys, so that people will look at me and see how mellow and well-adjusted I am compared to these monkeys throwing feces around. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

You have to let go of the things that are darling to you. You have to take the focus off yourself and put it on the shape of the scene and the intention of what everyone else needs. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

The higher the stakes, the happier I am, the better I will be. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Give me a scotch, I'm starving. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Sometimes you just gotta be drop-kicked out of the nest. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

[Robert Downey was being singled out for] selective prosecution. He's a sweet guy who never did harm to anyone except himself. He's been doing drugs for 20 years and functioning for 20 years, and in those 20 years there've been hundreds of people who've been getting high constantly and behaved very destructively and have not been arrested. Robert's real problem is he gets caught. ~ James Toback

I like to be a little more difficult to nail down that that just inside myself, but when someone's motivations, even if they wind up falling in one side or the other of the debate, when they're personal and also when they're masked by something that only the audience knows is really their motivation, that to me is just what I call entertainment. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Growing up is something that you do your whole life. I want to always feel that I can be a kid if I want. Growing up has some negative connotations. Like, you're not supposed to roll around on the ground anymore. You're not supposed to make fun of yourself. You're not supposed to ride a bicycle. But I'm a Toys-R-Us kid. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I think the goal is to make a well written scene seem like it's improvised and/or to come up with things that you find in the room that you couldn't have known until you get into the real situation, just try to improve things as you go along. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I thought that the grounded-ish nature of the first Iron Man and where I think the success of it was based was I think people got excited that this was a technologically possible occurrence; and didn't Obama order an Iron Man? ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I'm not a method guy. I can't be bothered to have a method. I just want to be a part of a good movie and I can't stand to be surrounded by morons. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Sometimes everything you need to know to be an actor in your mid-forties, you learn before you were 15 years old. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

One of the great things about the 'Iron Man' franchise is that they employ fascinating actors who don't necessarily do action movies. Before 'Iron Man' you didn't associate Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow with those kinds of films. There's an emphasis on repartee and wit. ~ Rebecca Hall

Pick a dysfunction and it's a family problem. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I would say that among my many huge emotional miscalculations was my taking a film career for granted. It is the most awesome privilege to be able to use one's imagination and wit, physicality and musicality, conscious brain and unconscious instinct in the service of a work that has a chance to move and excite and amuse and delight people all over the world, including long after we're dead. What a noble calling! And I felt it was just there for me as a kind of given, some sort of inherited birthright-when in reality it's the most magnificent luxury. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I could deal with this [Pokemon] if I smoked a couple of grams of blacktar heroin. ~ Robert Downey, Sr.

I saw School of Rock, and I was like, why haven't I worked with Richard Linklater already? Then by the time I got him I was like, I'm really pissed off I feel like you owe me some retroactive swag. He gave me the 10-year anniversary "Dazed and Confused" T-shirt, which I still wear with relish. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

If you want to give me Robert Downey Jr in a metal suit and have him join the X-Men, then yes, let's go head-to-head [with Marvel Studios]. ~ Bryan Singer

It's a very smart and heartfelt movie and that's why, I think, we're all drawn to it. We really showed up for this with this collective idea that it was really ambitious, but we felt we all really had something to gain from it. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I always think part of success is being able to replicate results, taking what is interesting or viable about yourself as a professional person and seeing if you bring it into different situations with similar results. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Nothing will serve you better than a strong work ethic. Nothing. And it's something that you can't teach. You have to be thrown into it, where you're going to sink or swim. It's amazing how self-correcting and how clarifying a good, hard, shitty job can be. Because at the end of the day, any profession I've seen anybody in, when you peer behind the curtains of Oh, wouldn't that be a great job? Wow, what an amazing thing, a philanthropic endeavor! it really just comes down to It's a f**king grind. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

It's hard to get out of the barrel. It's slippery around the edges and people are happy to see you fall back in. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I used to be so convinced that happiness was the goal, yet all those years I was chasing after it I was unhappy in the pursuit. Maybe the goal really should be a life that values honor, duty, good work, friends and family. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

The physicality was important to me. Because the film has Shane Black's dialogue, and [Robert] Downey's delivery, and you look at [Jon] Favreau, Don Cheadle and Gwyneth [Paltrow], it is this heightened level with a comedic aspect to it. Everything is grounded in reality, but it plays a little heightened. ~ James Badge Dale

From Drew Barrymore to Robert Downey Jr., there's a long list of people who have faced their troubles, wildly overcome them, and succeeded. ~ Chris Pine

I've always just shown up and tried to figure out what's for lunch and am I going to get to play some racquetball that night. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I need a lot of support ... Life is really hard, and I don't see some active benevolent force out there. I see it as basically a really cool survival game. You get on the right side of the tracks, and you now are actually working with what some people would call magic. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I did Air America for two reasons: to be in a movie with Mel Gibson and to make a bunch of money. And then underneath there was the hope that in doing this formulaic thing I would be launched into a whole new realm of opportunity to do A-list movies. By the time we were done, the only positive thing was meeting Mel Gibson. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

'Shaggy Dog' was a very, very important movie for me. It was a very enjoyable experience. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I think a hero is someone who, if abroad or traveling, they go to the GOOP website to see what shops to go to, what restaurants to eat at, what clothes to buy, and they do that not fearlessly but in spite of their fear. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

People never change because they are under threat or under duress. Never. They change because they see something that makes their life seem valuable enough to start moving toward a life worth living. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I'm not 40 yet. I wouldn't even bother comparing myself to Chaplin. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Acting is always a challenge. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

If someone really takes a risk, it doesn't get dismissed. That's what happened when the Oscar was won posthumously by Heath Ledger, who did one of the definitive villain performances of all time. But it really has to be exceptional in defining everything we previously knew about the actress or the actor. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

And I think for a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like 'cultural genocide' just speaks to how bright he is. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I'm in a happy relationship, me and my ex are on really good terms, my kid and I are in a good spot. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Look, even bad years are pretty good years I think. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

You know I grew up on the Batman movies, and they had some terrific actors in, but you know a lot of the other ones - it wasn't always the case that you had people the caliber of Jeff Bridges or Robert Downey, so to kind of show up and work with Jeremy Renner or Robert or with Mark Ruffalo, any of them, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, the caliber of people you're acting with, to me, is really fun. From the first day I started doing scenes with Robert, it's been one of the funnest experiences I've ever had. ~ Clark Gregg

Tony Stark in 'Iron Man' helped wider audiences finally embrace the enormous talent of Robert Downey Jr. ~ Tom Hiddleston

Listen, smile, agree, then do whatever you were going to do anyway. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Acting is the most wildly overpaid position imaginable. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. doesn't work out like us regular folks. Adulation bathes him from the moment he arrives at his Los Angeles martial arts studio. ~ Stephen Rodrick

Every time I feel that I really hit critical mass and I'm in the right place is when I feel like the director and I become a third thing, and that's the character. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I loved it, it's such fun. I like that people are seeing it and then talking about it. Like when I took my son and his friends to see Napoleon Dynamite last year, we spent the next six weeks trying to explain it. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Worrying is like praying for something you don't want to happen. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

It was so nice to go into this fake courtroom [on Ally McBeal]. I immediately went up into the judge's chair. Nice view. A preferable perspective. ~ Robert Downey, Sr.

I think life changes every year. This is just a little more comfortable. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

It's like I have a loaded gun in my mouth and I like the taste of metal ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

McDonald's being the official restaurant of the Olympics is like smoking being the official medicine of cancer. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

If I was a Pokemon, I'll either be a Psyduck or a Jigglypuff. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Sometimes if you're wanting to look just a little bit taller, then you want to dress with just more of a thin cut. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

[Addiction's] not about placating the bad dog - it's about feeding the good dog. You still have to feed the bad dog, but only enough so that the ASPCA doesn't bring you up on charges. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I had this bad-boy-from-New York vibe going, dressed like a punk rocker with spiky hair. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I have a really interesting political point of view, and its not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you cant go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You cant. I wouldnt wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics every since. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

There's somewhere you're supposed to go, and if you get quiet enough, you'll make it. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I don't want to go all Michael Jackson on you, but I never really had a childhood. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I've noticed that worrying is like praying for what you don't want to happen. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I just don't like big guys who speak cryptically and act like they understand the language better than me. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I've always wanted to meet Robert Downey, Jr. because I think he's awesome. ~ Elden Henson

I am in the continual process of transcending fear-based rituals ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I never know when the seeds are being laid, I'm just like, "Wow, that's a pretty cool scene. Is that? Are we laying seeds here?" ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I remember when people said, "Man, that's a powerful scene in the movie!" and I was like, "We just shot this thing before lunch, I don't know, he tears a log apart, I said some words". ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

But I think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang really got that thing where, if a movie reads really funny and then has some dramatic or violent or sinister stuff in it, you can't forget that primarily it has to be even funnier than you read it or that other stuff doesn't work. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I guess the main thing is, you unconsciously take things for granted, and you think the audience is with you, because you're with yourself. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

And as the elevator descents, passing the second floor, and the first floor, going even father down, I realize that the money doesn't matter. That all that does is that I want to see the worst ~ Bret Easton Ellis

At the end of the day, anything I think I'm sacrificing I'm just giving up because it makes me feel better. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

It was a democracy in the truest and most frustrating and most rewarding sense of the word. Anybody could come in and say, "You know, I'm just not cool with that." We'd be like, "Who's that?" "Oh, I was just cleaning the trailers." It was nuts. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

You can't go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary, and really understand it, and come out a liberal. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

If you're doing a drama that has some comedic elements you can't forget that it's primarily a very serious film that has some light relief. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I really don't want to thank my wife because I could be bussing tables at the Daily Grill right now if not for her. Jesus, what a gig that'd be. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Whenever I watch someone doing something, even if it doesn't turn out so great, I at least admire their intentions and stuff. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

And last but not the least ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

If you're anything like me there are days when you're convinced you know more than everyone around you. Which is often confirmed by your interactions with people. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I'm not used to feeling like I belong where I am. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

If you're raised with a poverty mentality, nothing is going to change it. I do know some really stingy billionaires. I come from such a generation of hand-to-mouthers. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I take some pride in ... representing myself exactly how I would like to have my son remember me to his kids. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I make faces for cash and chicken. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Life is just so painful and messy and hard and worth it and all that stuff. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I'd love to see T'he Avengers' with Robert Downey, Jr. playing Loki and Clark Gregg playing 'Thor' and I play Captain America. ~ Tom Hiddleston

A lot of my peer group think I'm an eccentric bisexual, like I may even have an ammonia-filled tentacle somewhere on my body. That's okay. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

For 'Iron Man' I had to improv with Robert Downey Jr., which is like going up against LeBron in basketball. At one point he stopped and said, 'Can we give a round of applause to Olivia, because she's rocking it right now.' ~ Olivia Munn

All I want, and I think all any parent with a semblance of a moral psychology wants, is for my kid to have his own experience, uninhibited. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I'm not a poster boy for good behavior and recovery in Hollywood, I'm just a guy who knows he has a lot to be grateful for. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Wing Chun teaches you what to concentrate on, whether you're here or out in the world dealing with problems. It's second nature for me now. I don't even get to the point where there's a problem. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Does any new parent, even if you're not a first-time parent, ever really know what to do? ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

The greatest thing my dad taught me came from when I called him from a phone booth and said, 'Hungry. No bus token. Please. Out of options.' He said, 'Pfft, get a job. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Sometimes you're not supposed to enjoy it [acting]. You're supposed to cooperate with misery and proceed anyway. But what I do enjoy is a sense of well-being and just participating in life and life's turns. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I just think it's good to be confident. If I'm not on my team why should anybody else be? ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

It's weird when one movie that's connected to another doesn't reference that movie at all. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I'm not particularly tall, strong, fast, or aggressive. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I guess the issue for me is to keep things dynamic. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I was kind of like chasing my tail and trying to do the right thing, and was a little bit stupid. Or irresponsible, which is the same thing I guess. It's just been really busy and I had a lot of great opportunities. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

I think paranoia goes from generation to generation. It's convenient to imagine that there's a few people controlling everything, that way it's manageable and small. But that's not life, life is messy. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

With a terrible script you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it's going to translate easily. ~ Robert Downey, Jr.

Ideology has consequences. ~ Robert Greenwald

At St. John's College, Annapolis, where Robert Hutchins' educational views have been most successfully practiced, they make, it is true, a great hubbub about science. The school's catalog boasts that more mathematics and laboratory work are required than at any other college, and there is even a pretentious listing of all pieces of apparatus used by the student, down to such items as compass, calipers, and ruler. But so heavy is the emphasis on highlights in the past history of science, that little time is left for acquiring a solid grasp of current scientific opinion. ~ Martin Gardner

We've all got to earn a living. And writing songs is what I do. But when I've done a record, it's not that I think it's better or worse than anyone else's, but if I think that nobody else would have done it if I hadn't, well then that's ok. ~ Robert Wyatt