Hugh Grant quotes:

If you have a smothering parent, the effect it can apparently have on a child is to give them, in equal doses, a sense of too much self-esteem, because they are mummy's little princess or prince, and low self-esteem. It affects future relationships.

I love in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are. My mother has trouble remembering my name.

At home, I hardly ever leave London. I don't like the countryside in England.

I just don't believe in love at first sight any more, even though I've based my whole career on the concept.

And I particularly like the whole thing of being boss. Boss and employee... It's the slave quality that I find very alluring.

I cling to the fantasy that I could have done something more creative. Like actually writing a script, or writing a book. But the awful truth is that I... probably can't!

Basically, my life is so boring, it's embarrassing.

I couldn't put my hand on my heart and say I think that being in a relationship is a natural state for a human being.

Well, you know I have an office, my film offices. So I know that syndrome. I fancy offices, so there must be something wrong with me. Even the window cleaner intrigues me. It's a very sexy environment.

I look at life and I see some very happy relationships, but I also see the vast majority as not being that happy.

I think that's the whole point of Bridget Jones. It's all about that it's okay to fail.

I find it hard to understand why Scorsese has never called. You know, given the natural menace I bring to the screen.

The truth is, I'd never seen a Cary Grant film. Since then I have watched his stuff and it's astounding, but I don't see any similarity between us. Except for the fact that I'm told he used to wear ladies' underwear, which is something I also do.

Plus, teaching brings home to you very fast that you actually know nothing. I didn't realize that before.

I'm a terrible vacillator; I can be sure of something one day and change my mind the next.

I quite like Pilates now. I have a Pilates girl in every city.

With 2 movies opening this summer, I have no relaxing time at all. Whatever I have is spent in a drunken stupor.

I think I'm rather young and sprightly, but then you see pictures of yourself and think, 'Who is that old man?' and I realise I'm not as young as I thought I was.

I don't have any particular burning desire to go back to being cuddly. Not really.

Women are frightening. If you get to 41 as a man, you're quite battle-scarred.

The moral of filmmaking in Britain is that you will be screwed by the weather.

I'm very unrelaxed doing a newspaper interview.

I don't think there's much point in putting me a deep, dark, heavy, emotional film because there are people who do it so much better than I do.

I don't particularly like babies. I don't mind them for about four minutes. That's my max. After that I can't quite see what everyone's fussing about.

But when you're a celebrity, you discover that you're no longer the pursuer, but the one being pursued. That's one of the disappointments I have had since becoming a single man.

For any new technology there is always controversy and there always some fear associated with it. I think that's just the price of being first sometimes.

When I think about actors I know, I'd much rather hear about who they're shagging than what film they're doing next.

I'm such a chronic relativist, I can't hold down a strong opinion about many things long enough.

I'm a laugh tart. I make no secret of that fact.

The reason I turn down 99% of a hundred, I mean a thousand, scripts is because romantic comedies are often very romantic but seldom very funny.

My laziness is really profound. I'm really interested in where it comes from - it almost feels chemical. And we've all got ADD now, short attention span and all that.

Most actors really love it, that's what they want to do. They burn to do it. And so they'll read a script and think, that's an interesting part. And because they love acting, that blinds them to the fact that the rest of it is pretentious nonsense, which it very often is.

I had Courtney Love's left bosom out of her dress on my plate in front of me. It was extraordinary. I didn't know where to look.

I'm horrible in the mornings. I'm grumpy.

And film acting is incredibly tedious, just by its nature. It's incredibly, mind numbingly slow.

It's very rare in life to be sure about something - particularly when it's an issue.

But I just know from experience that accent wise, even if you're an accent genius, crossing the Atlantic is the hardest thing in the world either way.

Neither Elizabeth or I are keen to do a real-life couple on the screen. It's not very electric.

Strangely enough I'm better on a stage. I love that I feel like I blossom in front of a whole bunch of people.

I could do with more mobbing. Particularly from women. I'd like to be treated like Ricky Martin.

I play the sort of character who would sell his grandmother for career advancement, something I've come across a lot with actors.

In the last couple of weeks I have seen the ads for the Wonder Bra. Is that really a problem in this country? Men not paying enough attention to women's breasts?

I've always enjoyed sex scenes, though you're not really supposed to. The classic answer is, 'Oh, it's not sexy at all because there are so many technicians standing around.' But I've always found them extremely arousing.

Japanese women have always loved my films, even when no one else did. Ever since I made 'Maurice' in the 1980s, I've been getting hundreds of letter from Japanese girls. They definitely have a special place in my heart.

My dad used to have to open the second bottle of wine in the loo in case Mum heard the cork coming out.

My grandmother was utterly convinced I'd wind up as the Archbishop of Canterbury. And, to be honest, I've never entirely ruled it out.

Now [after doing Pilates], I have muscles of steel and could easily deal with giving birth.

The only reason my work seems to be eclectic up to a certain period is because I was a failure as an actor.

There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us.

You know everyone loves to be the villain.