Jeremy Irons Quotes

It's only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you're not expressing the utmost of your human experience.

Acting allows me the freedom to let go, to be in the moment, to be spontaneous. I no longer have the fear of losing, of failure.

You can't fly unless you let yourself fall

If you don't risk doing something foolish, you'll never do anything special.

As an actor, I think sort of relish the chance to take a leap and sort of put yourself out there. You know, it's, like on any film, you just have to be willing to embarrass yourself, because otherwise you are not going to really reveal anything that you have. So I think it's exciting.

I think to be courageous, you have to be afraid. For me, it feels very courageous when I go skiing because I'm very, very afraid to ski. It's dangerous! I feel very scared. But when I'm acting, I don't feel very scared.

I've always believed acting is an improvisational art form, even when not a single line is changed. I mean, the behavior should always be improvised. My favorite moments in any performance are when I'm just along for the ride; when I'm surprising myself. I know when I'm done and I think to myself, 'Gee, I didn't see that coming,' I've done well.

Well, I always run the risk of falling on my face, which has in fact happened.

I think what I would say to my younger self, and probably to younger, just starting-out writers is that a lot of times you're just afraid to put yourself out there, and it's uncomfortable because it's working up the courage to do something, to push yourself to do those things.

When you put yourself out there, you're putting yourself in the position to make a mistake.

I always want to surprise myself, more than anybody else.

As an actor, you have to be open to doing things where you look stupid, to be experimental.

The best thing for an actor is to try it his way. The way they do it may not work, but it may inspire me to try something else.

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.

The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

What guides me is to do work that's more avant-garde - things that I think are special. You can easily become a celebrity and get caught up in all that blur. I just want to work and surprise myself.

If you play it safe every time, then you're missing the best part of acting. You haven't learned anything about your humanity.

I think part of what acting did for me is it kind of represents all my greatest fears. I'm sort of compelled to do it, but at the same time, it's so frightening. But I think that the things that frighten me the most in life are the things I should be doing.

If I'm doing something I know I can pull off, then that's not the book I should be writing.

As an actor, I have tried to do new things, and that's why I have done few films.

My dad taught me to never be pigeonholed; to really allow yourself to reinvent characters as they reinvent you; to be bold and to be willing to play seemingly unlikeable people.

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.

When you can surprise yourself, you're truly acting.

I just try to do things that make me excited. If I can find a way to surprise myself, then that's when I'm really excited to share something and really can stand behind it.

I want to scare myself when I choose what I want to work on.