Quotes by Hugh Laurie - Page 3

I think maybe even one of the reasons I became an actor was actually to hide. I mean, it sounds paradoxical because, of course, people are standing up in a public place and encouraging other people to look at them. So that's not the conventional definition of hiding.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Encouraging
Conventional
Mean
Paradoxical
People
Standing
Thinking
Definition
Hide
Reasons
Sounds
Standing Up
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I get anxious about a lot of things, that's the trouble. I get anxious about everything. I just can't stop thinking about things all the time. And here's the really destructive part - it's always retrospective. I waste time thinking of what I should have said or done.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Anxious
Destructive
Done
Retrospective
Should Have
Thinking
Trouble
Waste
Time Done Thinking
Time Thinking Always
Waste Time
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People are falling all over themselves to send you free shoes and free cufflinks and colonic irrigations for two. Nobody ever offers you a free acceptance speech. There just seems to be a gap in the market. I would love to be able to pull out a speech by Dolce & Gabbana.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Acceptance
Fall
Shoes
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I think my father gave me a great reverence for medical science. He was about as opposite to the personality of House as one could imagine. He was polite and easygoing, and would have gone to great lengths to make his patients feel attended to and heard and sympathized with.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Heard
Imagine
Polite
Reverence
Opposite
Attended
Easygoing
Gave
Patients
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I never went to drama school, I don't have any certificates saying: 'He's a qualified actor.' But I did think that House was something I didn't have to apologise for. It was something I was really proud of and it was sort of ... whether you liked it or not, it was undeniable.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Drama
School
Thinking
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I never went to drama school, I don't have any certificates saying: 'He's a qualified actor.' But I did think that 'House' was something I didn't have to apologise for. It was something I was really proud of and it was sort of... whether you liked it or not, it was undeniable.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Drama
Qualified
Apologise
Never Drama School
Liked
Drama Never School
Drama School
Undeniable
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I don't really understand why everybody doesn't want to direct. It's an absolutely fascinating combination of skills required and puzzles set on every possible level, emotional and practical and technical. It calls upon such a wide variety of skills. I find it completely absorbing.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Combination
Direct
Fascinating
Puzzles
Skills
Variety
Wide
Absorb
Calls
Practical
Required
Technical
Wide Variety
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It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Time
Procrastination
Thinking
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Ideas are 10 a penny. It's the execution that's the hard thing to do. House is standing up against a tide of sentiment and emotionalism over reason that threatens to engulf this world. When you think about it, a rationalist, a man of science and reason, is in a pretty lonely position.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Execution
Lonely
Standing
Sentiment
Hard Thing
Penny
Standing Up
Threatens
Tide
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I'm reasonably easygoing. Messing up my lines or making a fool of myself is where you find my fears. Like a lot of English people, I'm prey to embarrassment - the dread that everyone's sort of sniggering at you, that you're going to look like an idiot. I think that sort of halts us all.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Dread
Embarrassment
Fool
Lines
Prey
Myself Look People
Easygoing
English People
Fears
Messing
Reasonably
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Driving a motorcycle is like flying. All your senses are alive. When I ride through Beverly Hills in the early morning, and all the sprinklers have turned off, the scents that wash over me are just heavenly. Being House is like flying, too. You're free of the gravity of what people think.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Inspirational
Morning
Alive
Beverly Hills
Driving
Early Morning
Flying
Gravity
Heavenly
Hills
House
Motorcycle
Senses
Thinking
Like
Just
Morning Your Me
Being
Me
Free
Beverly
Through
Too
Early
Off
Over
Ride
Turned
Wash
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I feel like a hostage to fortune. Not that I am complaining. I wanted to play the role. But in truth I didn't think the show would be such a success. OK, I thought it would fail. Not because it was bad. I was confident it was good, but plenty of good things just sort of wither on the vine.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Complaining
Good Things
Hostage
Plenty
Confident
Fail
Ok
Vine
Wither
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L.A. runs on optimism, enthusiasm and flattery. I think you can go a little bit crazy. I've heard people say there's a limit to the number of years you can stay in this city without going slightly mad. It's just too damn sunny in every dimension - weather-wise, socially and professionally.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Damn
Enthusiasm
Flattery
Sunny
Dimension
Limit
People Say
Professionally
Runs
Socially
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When I was a small boy, 10, 11, 12, probably somewhere around there, when I first heard a blues song on the radio, it was a jolt of electricity. It grabbed me by the throat, it made me shiver. And I knew from that moment that this was for me and this would be with me for the rest of my life.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Electricity
Throat
Life Moment Me
Blues
Grabbed
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I personally believe that the iPod is a frankly corrosive device because it encourages you to surround yourself with your favorites. The whole idea of a playlist is to surround yourself with your favorite things, and the interesting thing is that when you do that, they cease to be your favorites.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Believe
Cease
Ideas
Interesting
Ipods
Surround
Surround Yourself
Believe Yourself Your
Believe Yourself Surround Yourself
Favorite
Corrosive
Believe Surround Yourself Yourself
Device
Encourages
Favorite Things
Frankly
Surround Yourself Believe Yourself
Interesting Thing
Ipod
Personally
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People are more open about seeking help these days. They recognise the fact that the alternative to having a shrink is that you bore your friends stupid. So I figured that I might as well give someone 100 bucks an hour to hear my woes. At least someone can make a living out of listening to my tedious problems.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Giving
People
Stupid
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I was too shy, I think, to sing publicly. It takes a particular kind of person. And when I was young, I was not that person. In the first instance, when a record company said to me, do you want to try and make your record, my first reaction was, no, I'm not worthy - I couldn't possibly, and so on and so forth.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Instance
Particular
Shy
Thinking
Trying
Worthy
Forth
Record
Particular Kind
Possibly
Publicly
Reaction
Sing
Takes
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One of the principal goals in my life has been to avoid embarrassing my children by doing the job I do. I hope I've managed to do that, and I hope that, with the job I'm in now, they are, if not proud, at least unembarrassed by it. I must say, my three are most agreeable children, who do nothing but delight me.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Jobs
Children
Delight
Embarrassing
Goal
Principal
Proud
Life Hope Me
Agreeable
Avoid
Least
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I think good-looking people seldom make good television. And American television studios almost concede before they start: 'Well, it won't be good, but at least it'll be good-looking. We'll have nice-looking girls in tight shirts with F.B.I. badges and fit-looking guys with lots of hair gel vaulting over things.'
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Girl
American Television
Nice
Shirts
Studios
Thinking
Good Start People
Concede
Gel
Good-Looking
Seldom
Tight
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I think of House as a deeply moral character, though some would no doubt argue with me. He does not judge. Beyond his normal tetchiness, there were no more than a half-dozen moments of actual condemnation from him. He understood lies and also why you lied, and there was an absolution there that is very, very appealing.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Absolution
Condemnation
Lied
Moral Character
No Doubt
Understood
Actual
Appealing
Argue
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I am very, very aware at all times. I'm watching myself, I'm listening to myself, I'm judging myself, critiquing myself all the time, and I will know when I do something and I will immediately say, "Can I do another one, because I didn't quite get that thing," or that I wanted to do something there and it didn't quite work.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
All Time
Judging
Listening
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Music is one of the noblest callings I can think of. It's the highest of all the art forms to me. For example, if my kid said to me, 'I want to give it all up,' whatever it is that they're doing, 'and I want to take my saxophone and go out,' I would say, 'May God go with you. This is a great and noble thing that you're doing.'
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Example
Noble
Saxophone
God Art Music
Art Forms
Forms
For Example
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I grew up with an impatience with the anti-scientific. So I'm a bit miffed with our current love affair with all things Eastern. If I sneeze on the set, 40 people hand me echinacea. But I'd no sooner take that than eat a pencil. Maybe that's why I took up boxing. It's my response to men in white pajamas feeling each other's chi.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Men
Affair
All Things
Boxing
Eastern
Grew
Hands
Impatience
Love Affair
Pajamas
Response
White
Love Men Me
Why
Bit
Sooner
Chi
Current
Set
Each
Feeling
Hand
Maybe
Pencil
Sneeze
Took
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Directing is the best job going. I don't understand why everybody doesn't want to direct. It's an absolutely fascinating combination of skills required and puzzles set on every level - emotional and practical and technical. It calls up on such a wide variety of skills. I find it completely absorbing. I just love the whole process.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Combination
Fascinating
Puzzles
Skills
Variety
Wide
Absorb
Calls
Directing
Practical
Required
Wide Variety
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As a real person, he wouldn't last a minute, would he? But drama is about imperfection. And we've moved away from the aspirational hero. We got tired of it, it was dull. If I was House's friend, I would hate it. How he so resolutely refuses to be happy or take the kind-hearted road. But we don't always like morally good people, do we?
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Drama
Good People
Hate
Hero
House
Moved
Real
Real Person
Tired
Good Always Hero
Be Happy
Friend
Last
Minute
Morally
Road
Refuses
Resolutely
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I feel when acting, I am sometimes overly self-conscious; I think, 'Going, no, don't, put your eyebrow back where it was and, you know, turn to the left.' You know, I'm sort of very consciously adopting this character. But with music, I don't know. I found it was a question of just closing my eyes and just sort of letting things come out.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Adopting
Closing
Self Conscious
Eyebrow
Overly
Letting
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I think pain is a very - it's an extremely hard thing to empathize moment to moment. And you often don't remember your own pain, you know, that moment that you broke a limb or you burned yourself or, I think, this is a common thing that women talk about with childbirth, that the memory of the pain is hard to summon up and relive, thankfully.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Broke
Burned
Childbirth
Memories
Pain
Thinking
Empathize
Hard Thing
Limb
Memory
Relive
Summon
Thankfully
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Boxing is fascinating. It's good for the soul to be made to feel clumsy. I swank around during the week thinking I'm a big cheese, but you don't feel like that when you're in the ring with a chap who knows what he's doing. It's ritual humiliation. I'm going to be slugged about and probably killed, but I love it and have to do something to keep fit.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Boxing
Soul
Thinking
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I remember watching Mel Gibson on some show once, and he was being asked about his belief in the afterlife. Gibson said: 'Well, I can't believe this is all there is'. And I thought: 'Wait a minute. You're Mel Gibson. You have millions of dollars. You're a great-looking chap with every conceivable blessing that could be bestowed upon a man. And that's not good enough ?'
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Men
Believe
Blessing
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I do have a huge problem, a huge problem. In fact, worse than watching is hearing. I cannot stand to hear my own voice. When it's coming out of my mouth right now it sounds fantastically interesting to me. It's rich in light and shade, it goes up and down. But when I hear it either on TV or even on someone's answering machine, I just sound like I've had half my brain removed.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Interesting
Light
Voice
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In books, day breaks, and night falls. In life, night rises from the ground. The day hangs on for as long as it can, bright and eager, absolutely and positively the last guest to leave the party, while the ground darkens, oozing night around your ankles, swallowing for ever that dropped contact lens, making you miss that low catch in the gully on the last ball of the last over.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Book
Fall
Party
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Success on a cosmic level completely eludes me. I'm deeply suspicious of things being too good. It's part of my superstition, I think, to generate pain in order to give the illusion of gain. I'm not saying I reject success, but honestly, I don't quite know how to deal with it. It's an old feeling: As soon as you have the thing you've been going after all your life, that reasonable degree of security, you start kicking against it, doubting it.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Success
Pain
Thinking
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I was shown into a room. A red room. Red wallpaper, red curtains, red carpet. They said it was a sitting-room, but I don’t know why they’d decided to confine its purpose just to sitting. Obviously, sitting was one of the things you could do in a room this size; but you could also stage operas, hold cycling races, and have an absolutely cracking game of frisbee, all at the same time, without having to move any of the furniture. It could rain in a room this big.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Cycling
Moving
Rain
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Death and disaster are at our shoulders every second of our lives, trying to get at us. Missing, a lot of the time. A lot of miles on the motorway without a front wheel blow-out. A lot of viruses that slither through our bodies without snagging. A lot of pianos that fall a minute after we've passed. Or a month, it makes no difference. So unless we're going to get down on our knees and give thanks every time disaster misses, it makes no sense to moan when it strikes.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Blow
Fall
Piano
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[...] and as I walked, I tried to see the funny side. It wasn't easy, and I'm still not sure that I managed it properly, but it's just something I like to do when things aren't going well. Because what does it mean, to say that things aren't going well? Compared to what? You can say: compared to how things were going a couple of hours ago, or a couple of years ago. But that's not the point. If two cars are speeding towards a brick wall with no brakes, and one car hits the wall moments before the other, you can't spend those moments saying that the second car is much better off than the first.
Hugh Laurie / Actor
Couple
Mean
Wall
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Hugh Laurie Quotes - Page 3

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