John Hurt quotes

John Hurt was a renowned British actor celebrated for his intense and versatile performances in film, television, and theater. Audiences recognized him for memorable roles in movies such as "The Elephant Man," "Alien," and "Midnight Express." He left a lasting impact on the art of acting and inspired generations of performers. Here are 30 of his quotes:

Society is constantly recalibrating, redefining what it considers to be moral and immoral.

John Hurt

The most difficult thing about painting is the self-discipline. When I finish a job, I give myself a few days, but then I have to discipline myself quite fiercely if I want to do some painting that's worthwhile. Otherwise, you're just doodling. It's much easier when you're just told what you have to do.

John Hurt

Life is full of ironies and paradoxes.

John Hurt

The clergy is in the same business as actors, just a different department.

John Hurt

Pretending to be other people is my game and that to me is the essence of the whole business of acting.

John Hurt

It would be difficult to have any unfulfilled ambitions because I don't have any ambitions. I've never been that kind of performer.

John Hurt

Nudes are the greatest to paint. Everything you can find in a landscape or a still life or anything else is there: darkness and light, character dimension, texture. I painted heads too, of course.

John Hurt

I was completely crazy and mad when I was young. I was absolutely in love with the dissolute.

John Hurt

I think love can be really tough. Because it involves ultimately an honesty to the nth degree that you are capable of. Once said, you've lost your deposit. It's best if you don't say it.

John Hurt

I am not an enormous believer in research being the be-all and end-all. I get suspicious when I read about actors spending six months in a clinic, say, in order to play someone who is sick.

John Hurt

I remember once when I told Lindsay Anderson at a party that acting was just a sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians he almost had a fit.

John Hurt

We are all racing towards death. No matter how many great, intellectual conclusions we draw during our lives, we know they're all only man-made, like God. I begin to wonder where it all leads. What can you do, except do what you can do as best you know how.

John Hurt

Also the wonderful thing about film, you can see light at the end of the tunnel. You did realise that it is going to come to an end at some stage.

John Hurt

It's quite a dangerous career move to go wilfully on making films that may not find a distributor.

John Hurt

I never had any ambition to be a star, or whatever it is called, and I'm still embarrassed at the word.

John Hurt

If you do an interview in 1960, something it's bound to change by the year 2000. And if it doesn't, then there's something drastically wrong.

John Hurt

It's an immensely competitive business, and I can tell you the older you get, the parts are fewer, and the people who are proven performers are greater.

John Hurt

Each day, as you get older, there is a new perspective on life. It's a progression of some sort.

John Hurt

I first decided that I wanted to act when I was 9. And I was at a very bizarre prep school at the time; to say 'high Anglo-Catholic' would be a real English understatement.

John Hurt

I think you can get better in mathematics on a school level, but when you're talking about being a mathematician, I think that's definitely a gift of genes or whatever, you know? Whatever your pool is.

John Hurt

My parents felt that acting was far too insecure. Don't ask me what made them think that painting would be more secure.

John Hurt

If I'm in theatre, cinema doesn't even cross my mind. Similarly when I'm making a film, theatre doesn't cross my mind.

John Hurt