Rory Kinnear Quotes

I was very much a product of the public-school system. There was only one other kid in my class who had parents not involved in the stock market or law.

Being a posh actor in England you cannot escape the class-typing from whatever side you look at it.

I never like the TV or movie Harvard characters. The fact of the matter is that most people who go to Harvard went to public schools and weren't in final clubs. I didn't even know that final clubs existed until I was a senior.

It is impossible, in our condition of Society, not to be sometimes a Snob.

I've never felt entirely comfortable in high society. I'm more comfortable talking to the bar staff than the super-rich. I don't really get what makes them tick.

I don't understand all about New York society. It's only when they are in trouble that I'm really interested.

It's the weird thing Eton does - you're at school next to lords and earls and, in my case, Prince William, so you end up being used to dealing with those sorts of people.

There are only two classes - first class and no class.

I had an Edinburgh, middle-class childhood and a public school education.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through.

We never see the fancy schools with the blazers and ties in films about Africa! But, in fact, we too have class and elitism.

It was hugely helpful to me, being South African. I have never felt uncomfortable in posh society because I don't see what it is that I'm meant to be bowing the knee about.

I do speak well as I went to a posh school. But I come from no real breeding.

England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

Class still matters in Britain today.

May not the complaint, that common people are above their station, often take its rise in the fact of uncommon people being below theirs?

Since my education, I've done quite untraditional things. There are very few Etonians who went to Rada. And far fewer Etonians - certainly when I was there - went to Cambridge. I don't know whether it's the same now. Most people I knew went to Oxford, because it seemed more of an easy bridge.

And understand: class differences will not save you.

The bourgeois are other people.

England is obsessed with where you came from, and they are determined to keep you in that place, be it in a drawing room or in the gutter.

Language does not make one an elite.

Whether you like the look or not, that tailcoat is a tough shell, a suit of armour. The posh boy is a hardy species.

The biggest crime in England is to rise above your station. It's fine to be a pop star. 'Oh, it's great, lots of fun, aren't they sweet, these pop stars! But to think you have anything to say about how the world should work? What arrogance!'

Scratch a Yale man with both hands and you'll be lucky to find a coast-guard. Usually you find nothing at all.