Top 100 Clive Owen Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I couldn’t bear a marriage in which one partner hinges on the other.”

— Clive Owen

52. “I always used to say to myself, I’m going to die of lung cancer. That’s the choice I’m making.”

— Clive Owen

53. “I don’t like being consumed by work all the time. I consume myself so much when I do a part that I like to step away from it.”

— Clive Owen

54. “Good dialogue is very important.”

— Clive Owen

55. “I’m competitive with myself, not at the expense of everything around me. I never wanted to be a movie star. I just wanted to act.”

— Clive Owen

56. “You come ready to work when you know that you are going to get a couple of gos and it. It kind of galvanizes everything and there is something about it that keeps it very alive.”

— Clive Owen

57. “I treat any scene the same – dialogue, action – you’re still creating something in character. It’s all acting, fighting.”

— Clive Owen

58. “I’ve done a number of things based on real people or true stories or based on books, and I’m a great believer that you have to be true to the script.”

— Clive Owen

59. “I do wear suits all the time.”

— Clive Owen

60. “You see these actresses who have had Botox or something else done, and it takes you out of the film.”

— Clive Owen

61. “The worst piece of advice I’ve gotten in my whole career is from somebody who said, Remember, it’s all about likeability.”

— Clive Owen

62. “I watch a film and the most important thing to me is what I think of the movie.”

— Clive Owen

63. “There are a lot of people who go through a lot of tough things, and it doesn’t stop them from wanting to be a better parent.”

— Clive Owen

64. “The theater’s a live thing, and film is, to some extent, a discipline where you’re putting everything together and trying to execute something exactly. You do it away from people and then you present it at the end.”

— Clive Owen

65. “I go off and make movies; I come home, and I’m a dad and I hang with my girls.”

— Clive Owen

66. “The thing about Hemingway that people forget is that all the stuff he did was at a time where people weren’t traveling that much. At 19 he travels to Italy. He goes to the Spanish Civil War. He goes to China, he goes to Africa so at that time to travel that much is really incredible.”

— Clive Owen

67. “For an actor, it’s very important to get a clear idea of what a director wants, and their intention for what they want to get out of a scene and how they want to shoot it. Having that knowledge is really valuable, for an actor. It means you can deliver more.”

— Clive Owen

68. “Very often on films, even without a producer credit, I’ll be involved, very early on. I want to be there as the thing is taking shape.”

— Clive Owen

69. “Acting is all about likability.”

— Clive Owen

70. “When I look back, if I’d played something differently, it might not have gone the way it did. So I don’t feel like going back to my twenties and changing anything.”

— Clive Owen

71. “Very often when you see families it’s all perfect and neat, and parenting isn’t like that. You do have constant negotiations. Things are ever developing and ever changing, and you constantly have to evaluate how you deal with your kids.”

— Clive Owen

72. “You’re always dealing with emotions as an actor.”

— Clive Owen

73. “I always want my options to be open.”

— Clive Owen

74. “I’d like to do a film which is funny.”

— Clive Owen

75. “If you are making a script based on a book it can be frustrating going back to the source novel, because you’re turning the story into a totally different thing; the narrative of film is different from that of a book.”

— Clive Owen

76. “I guess I’m not that metrosexual. My bathroom cabinet is hardly overflowing with products. I only really have my stuff for shaving. I can’t honestly say I moisturise, though I probably should.”

— Clive Owen

77. “For some people, an event happens and they are thrown into a tabloid feeding ground.”

— Clive Owen

78. “When there’s an idiot driving crazily in front of you, that can wind the best of you up.”

— Clive Owen

79. “Audiences can be very judgmental.”

— Clive Owen

80. “The financial implode is bound to be reflected in the movies that are being made, there’s no question.”

— Clive Owen

81. “I’m always very aware of the physical challenges of work. I train much more than I did when I was in my twenties, and I’ve done some very physical films, and I always get properly prepared for them and get as fit as I can.”

— Clive Owen

82. “When you are shooting action, there is a satisfying thing because your objectives are very clear.”

— Clive Owen

83. “I never aspired to be anything. What I’ve done is beyond my wildest.”

— Clive Owen

84. “One of the things I’m most proud of about my career is the fact I’ve managed to keep options open.”

— Clive Owen

85. “For me, London is and always will be home.”

— Clive Owen

86. “A room full of great sportsmen is so much better than a room full of actors.”

— Clive Owen

87. “When I started in the theater, the joy for me was playing different parts, and I get set alight by different people and different worlds. The biggest joy for me is jumping around and going from that to this to that, never feeling that I’m any one thing – because I’m not, and we as people aren’t.”

— Clive Owen

88. “I can honestly say I’ve never chosen a film because where it’s shot is convenient.”

— Clive Owen

89. “There’s not a big gun culture in England at all still.”

— Clive Owen

90. “I’ve got an age that I do think of myself.”

— Clive Owen

91. “One of the things I love, more than anything, is jumping around and playing lots of different parts. I love the variety of playing different characters.”

— Clive Owen

92. “I do a lot better if I sit around and think about a character for a couple of months.”

— Clive Owen

93. “I don’t think you necessarily identify and believe in the motifs of the character, but you have to want to play it and want to commit to the lines.”

— Clive Owen

94. “A lot of the projects that I do, I like to be involved with earlier. I just feel that, certainly from an acting point of view, it’s easier to do my job, if I’m included in what the intentions are, for why people are doing what they’re doing, especially with a director.”

— Clive Owen

95. “The medical operations are so challenging because they’re so technical, as well. I assumed before we started that we would do the classic thing, when it comes to the operations, that we would do all of these inserts with real doctors.”

— Clive Owen

96. “I’ve had some great times with actresses, but that’s in a movie.”

— Clive Owen

97. “After drama school I did a seven-month tour of Europe performing in ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ I played Romeo.”

— Clive Owen

98. “As I get older, I’ve been having a better and better time.”

— Clive Owen

99. “I’ve got actor friends who didn’t get breaks, who struggle and worry about things that I’m fortunate not to have to worry about.”

— Clive Owen

100. “Obviously, I’m attracted to heavier movies.”

— Clive Owen