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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.

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I Guess The Main

Robert Downey, Jr.

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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.

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Taking Things For Granted

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If I Was A Lawyer, I'd Be My Own Best Client.

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Whenever I Watch Someone Doing Something, Even If It Doesn't Turn Out So Great, I At Least Admire Their Intentions And Stuff.

Worrying Is Like Praying For Something You Don't Want To Happen. I Have Such An Overwhelming Sense That If You're In The Right State Of Heart, The Next Right Thing Appears To You.

Everyone Has A Story, And The Story Changes, And The More I Can Root Into The Truth Of Things - It's So Hard - I Don't Think Anyone Ever Really Puts It All Together. But Somewhere Along The Way It All Became Fused.

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.

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.

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.

When You Have A Good Script You're Almost In More Trouble Than When You Have A Terrible Script.

And Last But Not The Least

Nothing's A Break For Me. Not Even The Breaks Are Breaks.

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.

I Think I've Been Lucky, Being My Frequent Appearances On Court Tv Have Brought To Me Another Level Than Just The Actor Guy.

Remember That Just Because You Hit Bottom Doesn't Mean You Have To Stay There.

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.

I Just Think It's Good To Be Confident. If I'm Not On My Team Why Should Anybody Else Be?

Discipline For Me Is About Respect. It's Not Even About Self-respect; It's About Respect For Life And All It Offers.

I Just Don't Like Big Guys Who Speak Cryptically And Act Like They Understand The Language Better Than Me.

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.

Listen, Smile, Agree, Then Do Whatever You Were Going To Do Anyway.

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.

I Take Some Pride In... Representing Myself Exactly How I Would Like To Have My Son Remember Me To His Kids.

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.

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.

I Make Faces For Cash And Chicken.

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.

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.

There Is Unpanned Gold In Every Soul You Run Into, No Matter What Walk Of Life They Are From.

I Don't Drink These Days. I Am Allergic To Alcohol And Narcotics. I Break Out In Handcuffs.

At The End Of The Day, Anything I Think I'm Sacrificing I'm Just Giving Up Because It Makes Me Feel Better.

I'm Coming From A Place Of Total Strength And Humility Now.

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.

Give Me A Scotch, I'm Starving.

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.

I Think It's Miraculous That Anybody Survives Themselves.

I'm A Soldier Who Didn't Know How Nasty The Battle Was Going To Be, And Now, I've Got A Purple Heart And I'm Back.

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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.

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.

I'm Not Used To Feeling Like I Belong Where I Am.

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.

Taking Things For Granted

The Audience Can Feel The Subtleties Of The Characters.

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.

[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.

The Lesson Is That You Can Still Make Mistakes And Be Forgiven.

I Don't Want To Be So Confident In Myself.

Job One Is Get Out Of That Cave. A Lot Of People Do Get Out But Don't Change.

I Don't Like Words Coming Out Of A Character's Mouth That I Adore Because Not Only Is He A Little Bit Duplicitous But He's Kind Of Practical In The Way He Thinks, And He Thinks In Terms Of Everyone's Humanity And How Quickly We Can Go Against What We Think We Meant When We Said It Or What We Believe Or Blah, Blah, Blah.

I Know If You Talk Faster And Use More Ten-dollar Words Than Everyone Around You, You Convince Half Of Them That They Should Shut Up Because You Know What You're Talking About.

Im Such A Work In Progress At The Moment, Its Crazy, And Life Wants Me On Edge, I Swear To You. But As Long As I Dont Forget The Past, Im Cool. One Must Always Be Mindful, Just Like You Might Forget That Old Girlfriend Who Tried To Slit Your Throat, But Shes Really Still Hot. If You Remember The Stitches More Than You Remember The Pussy, Youre Going To Be Just Fine.

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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.

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.

I Am In The Continual Process Of Transcending Fear-based Rituals

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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?"

It's Become This Really Odd Thing Where Even Some Of The Folks Who Build The Things That We Wear For Entertainment Are Contacted By Darpa-esque Companies Who Are Saying, "yeah, We're Really Doing That, And We Want To Talk To You."

But I Will Agree That I Think That Things Happen With People In Relationships, That You Might Have Been Able To Enjoy Morocco, Say, If You Weren't Getting Out Of A Bad Marriage. You Know What I Mean?

I Have A Sense Of Destiny That You Are Led To The Things You Are Supposed To Do.

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I Think That The Power Is The Principle. The Principle Of Moving Forward, As Though You Have The Confidence To Move Forward, Eventually Gives You Confidence When You Look Back And See What You've Done.

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Violent Ground-acquisition Games Such As Football Are In Fact A Crypto-fascist Metaphor For Nuclear War.

I Think You End Up Doing The Stuff You Were Supposed To Do At The Time You Were Supposed To Do It.

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.

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.

I Know Who I Am. I'm A Dude Playing A Dude Disguised As Another Dude.

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.

I've Always Felt Like Such An Outsider In This Industry. Because I'm So Insane I Guess.

I've Always Felt That If You're Not On Your Side, Why Should Anyone Else Be. So I Always Encourage People To Be Confident, And Sometime Even A Little Falsely So, Just So You Can Give Yourself An Opportunity.

I'm An Actor, A Husband, A Father Of Two, And A Full-time Avenger.

I Don't Think I'm In Any Position To Give Anybody Advice About Anything.

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.

I Felt Like A Fighter Who Was Training For A Title Bout That Had Not Been Booked Yet.

Worrying Is Like Praying For Something You Don't Want To Happen.

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.

I Walk By Studio Heads And They Actually Look And Put Their Hand Out Now, Like Maybe I Should Be On Their Radar.

People Rise Out Of The Ashes Because, At Some Point, They Are Invested With A Belief In The Possibility Of Triumph Over Seemingly Impossible Odds.

Impossible Odds

I Think That We All Do Heroic Things, But Hero Is Not A Noun, It's A Verb.

Nobody Learns A German Aria Overnight, Except Jared Harris.

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.

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.

I Think Life Changes Every Year. This Is Just A Little More Comfortable.

It's Weird When One Movie That's Connected To Another Doesn't Reference That Movie At All.

There's Somewhere You're Supposed To Go, And If You Get Quiet Enough, You'll Make It.

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.

I Didn't Have An Identity. It Was Manufactured. My Identity Now? It Was Written On The Wall By Ancient Forces.

I Guess The Issue For Me Is To Keep Things Dynamic.

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.

I Had This Bad-boy-from-new York Vibe Going, Dressed Like A Punk Rocker With Spiky Hair.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Be Drop-kicked Out Of The Nest.

The Old Saying Is True, Behind Every Good Man Theres An Incredible Woman.

It’s Such A Floating Freak Show. You Get A Bit Older And You Start To See What’s Going On Backstage In The Collective Psyche Of This Ridiculous Industry. … Nothing Pleases Me More Than When Somebody Who Was Awe-inspired To Be Working With Me Realizes I’m Just Another Schmuck That They’re Bored Of Hanging Out With On A Set. I Love That Moment. I Like It When That Persistent Illusion Is Smashed.

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.

I, Personally, Would Be Shocked If We Went To The End Of The Tape Now And I Didn't Have At Least One... Look, Even If I Don't Get One Directly, Eventually They're Just Going To Have To Give Me One When I Get Old. So No Matter How You Slice It, I'm Getting One.

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.

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.

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.

Mediocrity Is My Biggest Fear. I'm Not Afraid Of Total Failure Because I Don't Think That Will Happen. I'm Not Afraid Of Success Because That Beats The Hell Out Of Failure. It's Being In The Middle That Scares Me.

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.

To Me, Friendship Means Loving Tolerance.

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