Nick Harkaway Quotes

I like being famous when it's convenient for me and completely anonymous when it's not.

For me, it's important to keep a level of anonymity.

I don't like being recognised, I have no interest in being famous at all, I just do what I do. If I could be like Captain Kirk and beam myself up and then beam myself down, I would!

I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight.

I just hate the idea of being well known. I know that is almost impossible if you're an actor who has done okay, but I've always fought against it.

I'm happy to be the guy on the subway that people stare at and they just can't quite place it. I don't really like my life intruded upon too much. In a way, it's kind of nice to not be all that well known.

I don't really want people to see me. I'm not into stardom.

The minute I started being recognised, I became much more discreet.

I won't share everything, both in my act or in interviews. Some of the people who become the most famous are the most self-revelatory, and I'm like, 'No, it's just not worth it to me.'

On the street, on the train - I pull my hat down, and nobody knows it's me. I always wanted the kind of fame that came with an off button.

Some people in the public eye are hardline, like, 'We don't share anything about ourselves.' And that's fine.

I don't like to be in the public eye or talk about my private life.

I could have done a lot of things on TV, but I don't want to be recognised in the street. I'm not ready to feel that sort of embarrassment.

I'm not one that cares for publicity.

I don't want to be known as somebody that everybody knows about.

I've never had a very great public life.

I'm not a kid. You don't get in this business for anonymity. It's not like I have posters of myself on the wall, but at the same time, I'm kind of ready for a little bit of it, but I worry for my little one, and my family - their privacy. That's what I'm more protective of.

I'm not much of a famous-person friend. I've hung out with Brooke Shields and I don't think I've ever seen that kind of pure face recognition, but I keep a low profile.

I don't like everybody knowing what I'm doing, unless it's related to a movie. I don't like speaking to the press. I never did.

Obviously you don't want to be anonymous, but you don't want everyone to know your life.

I get recognized now and again, but the paparazzi aren't following me around. I get to go to the shop and buy bread and milk, and no one worries me.

When I started out in this business, I really wanted to become iconic, but I'm glad that didn't happen. I like to do things like travel on public transport unnoticed.

After getting recognized in public from my picture on our pretzel bag, I can understand not wanting to be in the public eye. It has given me a public persona I had always avoided as a child. I do it because it's for a good cause.

But anonymity is very important to me, and I don't want to be recognized in public more than I already am.

I owe 90 per cent of my life to people because I am a public figure, but 10 per cent is private to me. And I am not saying it in a defensive way. I feel my life has been made into a TV serial.