John Ridley Quotes

There will always be times where you think, 'What went wrong? Why wasn't that one more popular?' You can't always figure that out, especially if you think you've done the best job you can do and was interesting to you. I mean, 'My Soul to Take,' I thought should have done much better, and I still like that film a lot.

I've been in so many good movies that I felt like nobody saw; it's a pretty dreadful feeling.

I have made a number of movies that I have never seen. It's not a matter of ego. It's a matter of being disappointed. It's really a shame. It's just as difficult to make a movie that no one cares about as to make a hit.

I don't think people in England ever saw the best of me.

Of all the years playing football, I have never felt like an undisputed starter - that would be an error.

To this day I do not believe I'm great at anything.

I always say I've given 24 insufficient performances and I'm looking forward to the time in my life when I'll do something that I think is good. There's always stuff you can do better, stuff that maybe you didn't uncover enough. But if you do something that you truly believe is perfect, then that's got to be the last movie you do.

I don't look back on any film I've done with fondness or pride.

Nothing sounded as sincere as Nirvana's music. It took a long time for me to accept that any other music could be good in other ways. Including my own.

I've always been anxious about 'Primer.' There's good things about it, but all I've seen for a long time is the flaws.

I don't very often think I've done a good job. I don't like the majority of what I do. I shouldn't say I don't like it, but I'm not satisfied with almost everything that I do.

Since I'm not good at anything else, I hope I can keep singing for a long time.

I've always had this passion to be creative, and wanted to sing or be in bands and make music, but I didn't have ideas as to what format it'd be, or how I'd do it. I'm not very good with plans. I didn't think it would be me at the front, either. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that was something I'd prevent.

I had a beautiful childhood, so my adulthood has been really frustrating because it's - half the time it hasn't been as good as my childhood.

Even if you have a bad game, you have to swallow your pride and sign. It takes a little time, but it makes the kids happy. And it makes you feel good, too.

I'm not good at watching myself.

There's no blueprint for where I should be. I see myself as a young, good actor who still has a lot to learn. There's nobody at any point in their career who is the finished article.

As I'm always fond of telling hosts at the Oscars who are doing it for their first time, for everybody who wins, there are four people who don't. As the evening wears on, the room fills up with losers, and then they are bitter.

I'm not very good at sticking at things if I can't be successful at them. I gave up on sport a long time ago.

All I've ever ended up with in terms of achievements is the movie, some really stupid anecdotes, a bunch of crosswords that I didn't finish and maybe some old bicycle that I found lying around on set.

I don't feel like what I've done are 'accomplishments.'

It's good for the soul to hear yourself as others hear you, and next time maybe, just maybe, you will not talk so much, so loudly, so brilliantly, so charmingly, so utterly shamelessly foolishly.

I had to let my ego go a long time ago.

I know it wouldn't seem like I've had a lot of failure in my career, but there are things that I regard as failures, when I look at certain performances and go, 'That's not good enough.'

Usually, with the work I've done, by the end, I usually feel like it's a failure. It doesn't matter how it's received.