Robert Downey Jr. Quotes

You can't, or you shouldn't, be nominated for an Oscar unless you've turned in a performance that's special.

Vicky Kaushal is a shining example of what happens when you do good work consistently. Rajkummar Rao, Radhika Apte are other examples.

Put in the superlatives yourselves, I'm running out. It's already been a while now that he has been outstanding. He's more than decisive in every way. That he's capable of doing everything that he does at his age is something impressive, that doesn't make any sense.

Trevino is in a league by himself. We don't even count him. We figure when you come in second, you're a winner.

Have you beheld a man skillful in his work? Before kings is where he will station himself; he will not station himself before commonplace men.

the lesson of Buffett was: To succeed in a spectacular fashion you had to be spectacularly unusual.

You can't succeed by being good. That's what you get paid for. You can't succeed by being excellent. That's what you're expected to do. You can only succeed by being outstanding.

My ambition is not to be just a good fighter. I want to be great, something special.

Young people don't always do what they're told, but if they can pull it off and do something wonderful, sometimes they escape punishment.

Champions do ordinary things better than everyone else.

I walked out of the theater and started crying. My wife asked me, 'Why are you crying?' I said, 'Because I can't do that.' I didn't know how he did it. I've never seen anything like that. It's like this feat, this Rodin sculpture to me. It's like hearing an opera singer and the tears go down your face because it's not human what they're doing. It's like sounds of heaven.

A brilliant author or businesswoman or senator or software engineer is brilliant only in tiny bursts. The rest of the time, they’re doing work that most any trained person could do.

The only performance that makes it, that really makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness.

Men of genius are far more abundant than is supposed. In fact, to appreciate thoroughly the work of what we call genius, is to possess all the genius by which the work was produced.

Don’t tolerate any form of average. Don’t accept Dis-excellence. Don’t stand for mediocre. If you’re going to settle, then please settle for the absolute best.

There is plenty of room at the top because very few people care to travel beyond the average route. And so most of us seem satisfied to remain within the confines of mediocrity.

We must strive to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.

People who are great thinkers, in science or in art, people who are great performers, have to have that kind of capacity. Without that kind of capacity, it's extremely difficult to manage a high level of performance because you're going to get a lot of extraneous material chipping away at the finery of your thinking or the finery of your motor execution.

Those who succeed in an outstanding way seldom do so before the age of 40. More often, they do not strike their real pace until they are well beyond the age of 50.

This isn’t a game. We don’t want mediocre employees who can keep the status quo. We want souls. We want to win. And you’ve spent most of your time here being mediocre.

If you look at the world-class performers at the top of the game, their numbers are just exceptional and that is the level he is at.

Any complex activity, if it is to be carried on with any degree of virtuosity, calls for appropriate gifts of intellect and temperament. If they are outstanding and reveal themselves in exceptional achievements, their possessor is called a 'genius'.

Ages are All Equal. / But Genius is Always Above The Age.

Viola [Davis] is one of the great actors of her generation. She has one of these moments in the theater that I don't even know how to describe.

Overachievement is aimed at people who want to maximize their potential. And to do that, I insist you throw caution to the wind, ignore the pleas of parents, coaches, spouses, and bosses to be "realistic." Realistic people do not accomplish extraordinary things because the odds against success stymie them. The best performers ignore the odds. I will show you that instead of limiting themselves to what's probable, the best will pursue the heart-pounding, exciting, really big, difference-making dreams-so long as catching them might be possible.