James McAvoy Quotes

I take a lot of pride in being myself. I'm comfortable with who I am.

I'm probably more dangerous in a car than I am on a motorbike; on a bike I'm very mindful of the fact that if you make a mistake you're dead.

Filmmaking is a miracle of collaboration.

The minute you start to strategize too much, the more you start to think you're in control of your own fate. And you're not, really.

The world seemed less scary and I started to like myself a little bit more.

I think the most romantic thing you can do is just turn up. Turn up when it's difficult for you. Travel halfway around the world or just up the road. Whatever it is, just be there.

For me, Charles Xavier is a monk. He's like a selfless, egoless almost sexless force for the betterment of humanity and mortality.

A story about my life would be utterly dull.

I think I'm losing my hair finally. And, yeah, that's kind of all I know.

[Macbeth] is historically set in a place depicted by Shakespeare as brutal and violent, incredibly superstitious, and that's something that I do believe is Scottish.

When I was 15 or 16 - I slept really well then. Now I sleep on a bed of anxiety-tipped nails.

Our intellect, our awareness, and our consciousness is the most powerful form of life on this planet.

Because technically actors are just public servants really. They just tell stories because people need to be told stories. That's all it is. And yet we get treated as though we're important.

A cry-wanking scene is the struggle to live, in a single moment.

Passing my motorcycle theory test gave me a disproportionate feeling of greatness.

I look at the Christian Bale movies, the Batman films, and that shows you that superhero movies don't just have to be about men in tights.

I want to be like Matt Damon and do a hugely successful thinking-man's action franchise like Bourne.

Shakespeare's stories are still very strong. He structured fantastic stories about things that were fundamental to the human being and psyche.

I judge people very quickly.

Kids audience is a brilliant audience. If you've got an audience of adults standing up and clapping, or you've got an audience of kids standing up and clapping, I know which one I'd choose.

People come up to me and they're usually nice, but as it goes on you realise that some people aren't nice. Some people are not nice at all.

I don't know why I get cast in a lot of period pieces. Stephen Fry told me that I had a face for period, that I look like someone from 1920.

Basically, every character I've ever played, I've based entirely on internal conflict. And I love doing that, because I think it's very human.

I don't know if anybody's ever ready for another award season. It's kind of like Christmas.

I'm 5 foot 7, and I've got pasty white skin. I don't think I'm ugly, don't get me wrong, but I'm not your classic lead man, Brad Pitt guy.

I wanted to be a missionary and work abroad, but girls started to become a bigger part of my life around the time I lost interest in the priesthood.

I wanted to join the navy to get some perspective on the world and explore.

I've never worked as hard as when I was at drama school. It's the most professional environment I've ever been in.

Fear is really powerful; it's really useful to me.

It's weird when you're watching yourself in a film - you can't really detach yourself from the experiences you've had that day. You're never watching the film as a proper punter.

The better the script is the more you can commit, but you can only really commit with full confidence when you know the material is as strong as your level of commitment to it and it frees you up.

I think fear is one of the natural states of most actors, to be honest.

Playing somebody who's obsessed. Playing somebody who is transgressing, and who is really crossing moral lines and ethical lines. That's always interesting.

I've seen beautiful actresses get spat at or just someone trying to get a rise out of them so they can get an extra hundred bucks for a photo. It's really rough.

I play football once or twice a week. I eat pretty healthy. I'm in fairly good shape most of the time.

I try to keep my life low key, and I don't like going to parties unless they're thrown by a friend of mine, or they're to do with a project I'm in, or it's because I've been nominated for an award.

As I get older, I want to do more films for kids because they're the best audience around. Just putting a smile on a kid's face is the best thing.

Next year, if no one gives me any work, that's fine. I'm not going to do well anyway. I'm not an actor, I'm just exploiting this industry.

It's quite liberating to have a director stand beside the camera and say: "Do this now, and do that now..." It's also a bit sordid but it liberates an actor, I think.

I've been in a few fights and I know what it's like to get punched in the face.

It's nice to be in a movie that hasn't been absolutely slaughtered by the press.

I also really liked playing Mr. Tumnus in 'Narnia'. I got to play my favorite character in children's literature, which I loved. You don't get the chance to do that in other jobs.

I don't want to be all worthy about it, but I don't do red carpets, I don't do events and I don't accept freebies that much.

I always believed that I never wanted to be an actor. I only did it because I was allowed to do it and I had to do something.

Every time I do a movie, especially an animated movie, I just seem to scream and shout and hyperventilate for money.

I am a nerd, but I don't dive head-first into any fiefdom of nerdiness, except for maybe 'Star Trek.'

I kind of embarked on a fruitless search to find information about my character, Frederick Aiken. And it was fruitless, unfortunately, because there's so little about him.

I did 'Narnia' because it was a good opportunity and all that, but really? I wanted to play Mr. Tumnus because he's my favourite children's character. That was awesome.

I'd like to have stayed in the Scouts beyond the age of 12.

Leading man seems to quite often be an idealized figure.