Rupert Friend quotes:

I like Scottish people because they feel very true. They're always level and straight. They get a reputation for being hardened because of it, but I find them to be scrupulously honest people.

My father started his own business, and before that was a freelance lecturer, and my friends are artists and musicians; they don't have real jobs - none of us have real jobs.

I think that what drives most of us as human beings is the want for something. You might have a hope, or a big dream, or a goal that you haven't yet achieved.

My great grandparents are Scottish, and I have this very tenuous connection which I try and bump up whenever I can, because I'd much rather be Scottish than English.

I think saying you're bad at something is rather wonderful because then it doesn't matter anymore.

My auditions for drama school were miserable, but one thing I had on my side, although I had no experience or skill or training, was that I wanted to learn everything.

Edinburgh is so cultural and such a beautiful place to walk around.

I had a lot of anger against the way things 'should be done' - conforming to social norms, ticking boxes to gain acceptance. Frustration at the pointlessness and predictability of smalltalk. Oh and a lot of anger about tea, which the British seem to use to avoid actually saying anything.

There are some great actors I don't want to meet because I don't want to know how they did it. I don't want to know anything about their personal life, and the illusion, or whatever it is, the shape-shiftery magic stuff that they do, which is my joy.

I'll tell you, there's no goodies and baddies in the world, there's just people with intentions that sometimes clash.

I don't really use the Internet or the newspapers to find out about people.

I think that the process of trying to become somebody else, and obviously the director/actor relationship in trying to do that, is such a weird, undefinable thing.

I don't think you can decide how famous or not you become.

I grew up in the countryside in the middle of nowhere in England and got out as soon as I could!

I think you can decide how much of yourself you're willing to make public.

I really admire artists who take the time to recharge their batteries and not continually call on it. I think you can spot tired and jaded artists quite quickly.

I can only go places because I know that I can go away from them, if that makes sense. I like the gypsy lifestyle that filming affords.

Everybody has many people inside of them; I think we tend to present the one we feel is most appropriate at first, in order to gain acceptance or achieve what we want. It gets really interesting when this technique fails, and other levels are revealed.

I really love living in cities where the people living above, below and next to you are from totally different worlds to you.

I've never got a part in the same way twice. I've never prepared the same way. I've never experienced the filming the process the same way.

I'm not intelligent enough to be a doctor, and kind of hands down you can't argue with the worth of that. But I don't really have an opinion about the worth of making art.

I don't think the idea of working in Hollywood really exists anymore. I think you work in films, and where the film is shot is where it's shot. The studio system doesn't really exist.

Growing up in England, you're sort of spoiled, in a way. You sort of take it for granted that within a half-hour's drive, you could be walking around a stately home from the 1700s. It's not very hard to do - in California, you've got to take a flight!

The accent in England can change literally from street to street, and people have this sort of feudal tribalism whereby you can identify somebody's provenance by their voice.

There are two qualities that I've noticed in good directors: One is that they have their vision very strongly in place; and two is that they listen to everyone's opinion and still remember their vision.

I don't have a publicist. I don't go to events or self-promote, or endorse things, or whatever it is people are meant to do in that world.

I'm only really interested in taking a part if it's nothing like me.

The image of all the cars leaving pastel-colored people at the same time has never really left me as an anti-ambition for life!

I believe that if you can discover something of the truth of a person, then you will start to understand, and to understand is to move towards, if not like, then at least an empathy of some kind.

I'm a terrible dancer.

It's great to sit and talk about the films and the people I work with, rather than where I buy my socks or whatever.

I've never thought it was a good idea to act back-to-back. If you are going to have any chance of replicating life, you need to live it. I also never forgot something Johnny Depp said to me, which Marlon Brando said to him, 'You only have so many faces in your pocket.' I really admire artists who take the time to recharge their batteries and not continually call on it. I think you can spot tired and jaded artists quite quickly.

Sport is not my thing.

Until civil rights are enjoyed by all of us, we're simply not civilized.