Samuel Johnson Quotes

I always said all my life if I wasn't born and they gave me the question I'd say I don't want to be born.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not supposed to be married.

I did a law degree but was miserable the whole time. I was supposed to join a law firm in London but instead went to Oxford to do a master's in philosophy.

But the path you end up on means that you have to close a lot of doors, too.

I had to take false steps and go through hard times to come out to where I am now. I can't imagine living without acting. It's not easy, and I don't disrespect anyone who steps out of it after a certain point. Having a family and a house is cool. It's not a betrayal. But if you're going to be an actor, it has to be more than a passing interest.

No wedding bells for me anymore. I've been happily married to my profession for years.

You can never fully put your finger on the reason why you're suddenly, inexplicably compelled to explore one life as opposed to another.

I've realized as well after five years of being on the road that if I'm going to four or five months of my life to something even if I'm overpaid, it's four or five months of my life away from home, away from my son, away from family and friends. I better believe in it on some level even if it's a big movie.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

If only I'd stayed on the West Coast, I might have made something of myself.

Marriage was probably the worst mistake I ever made in my life.

After that, I came back every year. Everyone said, 'Well, when you retire you can move there.' But I said, 'Why should I live my whole life where I don't want to be.'

It was an accident of circumstance that I never married.

I suppose if I'd got a brilliant first and done research I might still be a don today, but I hope not. People become dons because they are incapable of doing anything else in life.

By the Eternal, sir, I never had a second choice in my life.

I gave up my whole life to my career.

I think within what my job is, you always have to find a balance, because this job is also a life choice. You're traveling about; your hours are all over the place. If you're in a show, you're out every night.

Instead of becoming a great shikari, as my mother and stepfather might have wished, I had become an incurable bookworm and was to remain one for the rest of my life.

It was a life decision, deciding which path to take in my career. I needed time to get together with my family and closest friends.

There wasn't any one particular moment where I realised, you know what, I'm going to be a musician. The decision more came from a lack of options.

Boxing was my destiny.

I was 19 or 20 when I was confused whether to take up films as a career. At that juncture, I enrolled in an acting workshop and then eventually realised I was destined to be in films.

There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

To subdue one's self to one's own ends might be dangerous, but to subdue one's self to other people's ends was dust and ashes. Yet there were those, still more unhappy, who envied even the ashy saltness of those dead sea apples.