Tim Roth Quotes

Ilike ideas writers have that I might not have written. Writers are there for a reason... to write for me.

When you know youre whoring it hurts. I have kids. I`m not going to run down an actor for doing this.

Everyone is an abused child, if you think about what governments do.

Every film you make as an actor it`s not yours, it`s the director`s.

I didn`t want to make soundtrack film or a gun movie. These are the reasons I wanted to make a movie. I wanted to make an adult movie.

There is less pressure as a character actor. It generally means that you will be acting for all of your life, which is my intention. It is not my intention to just be a rich and famous person, that would be pretty boring.

I can`t do anything else. So if this falls through, I`m screwed.

If you meet somebody who`s spent any length of time in prison, you don`t let your guard down. Ever. And really, that`s what that was about-if you open up too much, you`re asking to get your teeth kicked in.

I don`t care to analyze acting. On the other hand there is a fascination because distributors are putting out British films. You get films here with great performances you`ll never see again. Why compare. We should go after the businessmen.

There just seems to be more acceptance now of... other kinds of British films, than the picture-postcard ones.

How would you compare Polanski or Kubrick? I try not to do any comparisons.

Doing comedy for film is always a challenge because you are in the hands of the editor after the fact. I am hoping I can do some more soon, I enjoy doing comedy.

I remember watching the Sex Pistols on TV when I came home from school - I think it was Johnny Rotten and Siouxsie Sioux from the Banshees - and they started swearing and the guy interviewing them got fired for provoking them. It was a wonderful time. It was like saying, `Ugly is beautiful, everything you taught us is wrong.`

I miss my family, and I like being a tourist when I go back.

I`m a workaholic.

I will watch everything that Cary Grant did, or Kubrick made or Bergman.

I have a bad time between jobs because I`m always convinced I`ll never work again. I think it may be an English thing, this fear of unemployment.

I think every director has a different take, some are good, some are bad. The directors you get on best with sometimes don`t make the best films, so who`s to say who is right.

Bring back dueling, I say. Drive-by sword fight.

There`s a lot of blood in that film. I think there`s only nine pints in a body; we had about four gallons. - on "Reservoir Dogs"

Certainly coming to America has been extraordinary.

Well, I think first it was rare for me to do anything that had any kind of a romantic note to it.

A character I would love to play is Iago, from Othello.

The more varied the characters, the better, as far as I`m concerned.

(On "Gridlock`d" co-star Tupac Shakur) "I found him to be incredibly talented. I used to call him "New Money" because he had a massive Bentley and a different model sat in the car each day, and he used to call me "Free Shit" because I always used to get loads of free stuff from companies. It`s a shame what happened - I think he could have gone on to be quite something as an actor."

I have come close to producing films. But generally by the time they hit the screen, there`s about 50 people with producer credits, so what`s the point. I usually find scripts I like with no money attached and take them to producers that I know and try to raise finance.

My mentors were my editiors. You come from location work with a million people and questions, and you get into the editing room, and its two people.

You read a script and its based on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and it goes right in the bin.

I`m sick of very white teeth and lots of gymnasium practice. I`m bored, you know, send in the next one. I wanted a real man that I could believe was my brother, my father, you know, my next-door neighbor-a real person.

I`d seen musicians act, and it scares me. And they make more money than me.

(Of attending the Academy Awards Ceremony) "Like going to Liberace`s house on acid."

British acting schools are diferent. There is a cultural difference. Americans, Africans, British, I`m not sure we share a language.

Before I started, I worried about what I was going to say to the actors. It kept me awake at night. Sometimes you get the questions wrong.

The first role I ever did... I played a Nazi skinhead.

I started off on stage because it was the only work I could get. I haven`t been back for 11 years. I think any stage experience is good experience, as far as being an actor is concerned.

One of the guys who worked at the Ape School became my stunt double so we just kept working on different things and just play around.

I`ve never really played a goody in the traditional sense. Anyway, I don`t think that I look the part of a heroic character, especially not in Hollywood, so they never really come up. On a childish level, villains are just more fun.