Jeremy Renner quotes:

I love the idea of going to work and having to fight and learn a new skill set, whether it's muay Thai or Kali or Filipino stick fighting. To me, it's like college for life.

I have a bad sweet tooth. I'm pretty good when I have to eat well for work, but otherwise, I could eat a whole roll of raw cookie dough.

In the 'Hurt Locker' there's a lot of me in there, a sense of humor, a man of few words and a lot of action.

I think cinema should provoke thoughts, sure, but using it as I soapbox I think is the wrong place. I never want to be part of something like that, where there's an agenda there that's not about telling a story, where its someone getting on a soapbox and preaching their own beliefs onto somebody.

The most experience I had in the criminology field is playing a thug as an actor. That was my first paid job. The police academy at the college was paying people to reenact the calls that potential cops would get. So I got to play thugs and people who were unruly.

People find themselves in ruts all the time. You're in a complacent lifestyle where you work 9 to 5 and then you add a mortgage and kids. You feel trapped, but guess what, brother? You constructed that life. If you're OK with it, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you've got unease, then you've got to make a change.

I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative I'd be dead.

There is nothing new, from Greek mythology to Shakespeare to every romcom ever made, we're just reimagining the same 12 story plots over and over again - so what makes people keep watching and listening? It's all about the character.

I do music because I can just pick up my guitar and sing, and completely satisfy, instant gratification. I don't need a script, I don't people, I don't need anything, cameras, I just have myself and my guitar, or keyboard.

I feel connected to that idea of wanting to belong to something, to have a sense of purpose as a man on the planet.

Other people can think ahead all they want. I just focus on the task at hand and try to move on.

I was always a singer. But I was always focused on being an actor as my trade. Music I do just for me. The movie business is very difficult but the music business is just impossible.

I like repressed characters. That gives me a lot of freedom to make a lot of different choices through subtleties.

The movie business is very difficult but the music business is just impossible. So I'll play in bands and record and play songs with other people, but for me it's a form of expression that all I need is me. I don't need cameras or agents, I can just have a piano and sing and feel totally verified.

I lived by the candlelight for two years because I couldn't afford power. It was nice and romantic at the time, but if you can't afford power you're pretty broke. You endure it.

I love my small town, and I love going back there and supporting the community. But I could not have stayed there. No way.

Building a house is like producing a movie. There's no right way to do it but a lot of wrong ways. You have to be flexible and creative. You have to move fast, be prepared - or it quickly becomes costly.

I want to be a good human being.

What matters to me is learning and growing, and getting to do what I love to do. As long as I can do that, I'm happy.

I'm consciously aware, specifically with the comic book world, where there's a built-in fanbase. But, there's a little bit of leniency because there are a couple different universes.

I love music. I do play. It's like mathematics, and it's also emotional. It's nice to play, for no other reason than just to play.

Architecture and building is about how you get around the obstacles that are presented to you. That sometimes determines how successful you'll be: How good are you at going around obstacles?

You have to wait for a big star to come in and generate interest on a project, and now that has become me, which is an amazing blessing.

So I take a little sleeping pill, pop it and realize nothing's happening - but something else was happening.

There's too much down time making movies. That leads to boredom. And that leads to trouble.

I don't change. The things around me change.

Not every actor gives their life to do this job. Some just do it as a job. Well, it's my life.

I've got to be active in life, and it's the same when I'm doing stunts in a movie: I'll do anything.

I'm attracted to those kinds of roles that could be good or could be bad, and you just don't know.

I guess I just have one of those resting faces that makes me look like I want to beat you up.

I think cinema should provoke thoughts, sure, but using it as I soapbox I think is the wrong place.

Accents can be a great tool to tell a story - but if you do it wrong, it pulls you right out of the movie.

The star thing, the celebrity thing, is new to me.

I don't really think there's much difference between a character actor and a leading man besides aesthetics.

I used to hang out at karaoke bars all the time. It was the most fun you could have when you had no money.

I need to react to a script, to feel strongly about it in some way. And I need it to be a complex character for sure. And also, I think a lot about what kind of audience there is for the film, what they're looking for and ways to connect with them in the playing of a character.

I think it's great to be a part of a franchise that is successful. Any franchise is successful because it's a continuation and people have seen it.

I will never be in the stock market. It's just gambling. I'm a gambler, but I'll gamble on the practicality of things.

I was very shy when I was younger. But I did have a terrible temperament. I would get angry very quickly, but the rest of the time I was this big goofball, playing the drums in a band and making out with girls.

When I was growing up, I wasn't taught how to feel or communicate feelings.

I'm just happy to be working.

Music I do just for me.

I live my life through fear. If I'm afraid of it I'll do it just so I'm not afraid of it anymore.

Our friendship [ with Don Handfield] has remained all that time, and I'm godfather to his kids, but then when The Hurt Locker came around, I just knew there was a lot of opportunity that was coming in, and just couldn't really manifest any opportunities because things were busy.

Why I'm so stimulated by [producing] is it becomes more proactive. Instead of waiting around for a script to come in, or some movie trying to go. You're waiting around always for that opportunity, which is great, but I like to be a little bit more proactive. I'm a very action-oriented guy - I'm a doer. The company really became this spearhead for that sort of attitude, and so that, to me, was the most exciting part of it.

I'm not very good at taking compliments. It's better than getting slapped in the face, I suppose.

I know it's a cliche but I never wanted to be famous. I don't believe anybody wants to be famous.

There is definitely a sense of pride to it - it's more precious when you cook something up from the beginning and you see it all the way to the end, and you get a little bit more of a say.

I like to play unpredictable characters, and I like to be unpredictable in what movie I'll do. I want to skip to work. I don't want to repeat anything. What the future holds, I don't know, but that's what I like. I'll take any risk there is.

We kept moving forward, kept pretty particular about certain things. Don Handfield is really great with story, so we kept working on it from that angle and developed a lot of IP over the years, which we became very proud of.

If you dissect my career as an actor, and you can pull out more than enough of those type of movies, from The Hurt Locker and The Town and so on and so forth, and that's kind of where our wheelhouse is. We love it.

I like to play unpredictable characters, and I like to be unpredictable in what movie I'll do.

I want to not do anything I've done before. That can come in any form.

Getting to play with Thor's hammer while he stroked my bow

I only scream and scratch when something's only 'really good' or 'good', I want to be great, or let's go home.

Don [ Handfield] was actually one of the first guys I met in town back in '94. He was an actor and a writer and all this stuff.

I want my personal life to be personal.

I'm an actor for hire, and I go do a job.

Fear is just not a part of my life - so much so that if it's involved in somebody else's life and they're close to me, I won't be around them.

We want to have movies be seen. So, first and foremost, what's the world? So we can get it onto a big screen.

I'll take any risk there is.

Any script, even like The Founder, if it's something that I imagine myself playing this character or that character - any of the characters, basically - how do we flesh these characters out to be good enough to have amazing actors that come in that make it really difficult for them to say no? Even though I'm not right for any of those parts, that's just kind of how we go about it.

I don't want to play a bad guy who doesn't have a bit of good in him.

We had tried to get a couple books that were written about Ray Kroc, and one of the books, we called the publisher. The publisher actually said, "Call McDonald."

I'm a simple, simple man.

I know what I like and what I want, and I can sit and enjoy every 10 minutes that go by. And truly enjoy it.

I've done movies that nobody's seen, and that's no fun.

Oh, all those ridiculous people with zero talent who spend their lives making sure everyone knows their name. Those stupid, stupid people.

I had to do a lot of work and allow myself to go places that were a little scary. You know when you play a guy like that it allows you the freedom to explore really weird parts about you. And it's OK. In order to really get it, I've got to allow myself to go there.

There is a greater a sense of pride - like when we did Kill the Messenger - and that was probably one of my more fun experiences on a movie set. Having everyone there on the same team, it just feels really great.

People love to yammer on about things that aren't real.

They don't allow you to go any further unless you can do this bomb suit training, because it puts such a mental strain on your spirit. It dumbs you down about 25 to 30 IQ points. You start to hallucinate in the heat inside the suit after 20-30 minutes. So you try not to stay in it too dang long. So the preparation for that - it's either you have it, or you do not.

We want to make people feel something after they buy that ticket.

Aren't we taught as kids that we're beautiful because we feel beautiful and not because someone else says so? You don't look like the model on the magazine cover but you can still be beautiful, so I can't say I really want to change anything. I'm happy with the flaws I have.

Not looking really to do some big giant action movie that's just trying to make a lot of money.

There are rumblings of Captain America 3. I don't know what's going to happen there. I've got to find the time, man (laughs). I'm trying to stay home and I can't.

What matters is how I feel about it, cause if I feel good or bad about it, then the audience will feel good or bad about it and that's just sorta the job.

And I don't care if you're talking about things that are true, you're still talking about my personal life. How about I go peek in your window, take what underwear you wore last night, whose husband you were f---ing, and shove that in the megaphone throughout your neighborhood? How does that feel? It's none of your goddamn business.

I was an athlete when I was growing up.

I'm blessed to have cool roles in these big movies.

We don't want to go to a movie and sit in a lecture.

I'll always build houses.

I'm able to really enjoy the wonderful things happening to me and that's a great blessing.

You have a great road map when you play somebody that exists. That's the amazing thing. But then you have great limitations from that road map. It's hard to deviate from it creatively as an actor. It's like, "Oh wait, he'd never do that."

I don't do well with expectation in my life. All I can do is do the best that I can do.

When you get praise from someone that you really admire it's really surreal.

I light candles because I want to have candles lit, not because I need to see!

I can't totally talk about why we divide, but... it's interesting because we're doing this scene today that's sort of the pinnacle of that. Two gangs fighting against each other, ultimately knowing that... ya know, it's like friends fighting friends. To me it's fun, personally.

Yeah it feels a bit more tangible, I suppose, even though you're in a green box for part of the time.

Yeah, yeah, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye type of thing. There's that kind of irreverence to it the humor and in the reality of what's really going on that plays into this movie.

I think there's a great connection between these two characters for sure. I mean, I don't know if she's coming over for dinner on the Barton ranch...

I guess gritty is the word that you said. But it has a different tone. We're not flying around in different universes - it's a bit more earthy.

Marvel's really smart about continuing the storylines of all the different movies from Ultron into this one and blah to blah to blah - it's pretty seamless. So where we left off in Ultron is definitely picked up in Cap 3 here, pretty smoothly I think.

I think that'll always be there for [Clint] Barton, right? You have real life, and then you have fight life. And that's the character that I love now - discovering that in him makes him a very sort of accessible Avenger. That'll always be there, I'm sure. And it certainly plays in this one.

Barton is a pretty brass tacks kind of guy. Kinda get the job done so I can go home. So I don't think it's very difficult for him to decide.

Yeah yeah, it's not so ethereal this time, it's a bit more rooted I feel like. Not that Joss 's wasn't, it was just a broader stroke that Joss was doing with all the Avengers. The Russo brothers are taking this Avengers 2.5, if you will, in keeping it still a Captain America movie. It's very sort of boots on the ground kinda thing, except for the flyers...

So there's that, and then there's always things you can do with the tips. Except for this, what they call the arrow tips, they'll all be non-lethal cause again we're not trying kill anybody, just sort of take control of the situation. They'll probably throw in a lot of gimmicks with the tips and trick arrows, and things like that. And ya the new, cool...

Yeah there's always something different. He's still limited to what he can do - ya know, no super powers, just a high skill set. But they have a cool thing - this time I learn very quickly... um, bow. 'Cause in the first Avengers he had that short bow that cracks open, and then I can crack and close with a staff. So now I'm a master with a staff apparently. I have to learn that today.

It takes a lot out of you to do a stage play, but I'd love to do that. I'd love to continue to do challenging material, whatever shape or form that comes in.

I have a hard time saying "no" if it's right. I don't say "no" to say "no." I said "no" when I didn't have a pot to piss in. I still said "no" to big money jobs because they didn't make creative sense to me.