Quotes from Robert Downey, Jr.

I've always been a fella who put most of my eggs in one basket and then take a dump in the basket but I really don't know.

I grew up with a lot of people whose whole prime mover was dad rage. I never really had it - it always seemed so empty. It always seemed to be masking something else, which was really their own lack of initiative.

All I want, and I think all any parent with a semblance of a moral psychology wants, is for my kid to have his own experience, uninhibited.

Acting is the most wildly overpaid position imaginable.

I was kind of like chasing my tail and trying to do the right thing, and was a little bit stupid. Or irresponsible, which is the same thing I guess. It's just been really busy and I had a lot of great opportunities.

I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you've done.

I think you end up doing the stuff you were supposed to do at the time you were supposed to do it.

If someone really takes a risk, it doesn't get dismissed. That's what happened when the Oscar was won posthumously by Heath Ledger, who did one of the definitive villain performances of all time. But it really has to be exceptional in defining everything we previously knew about the actress or the actor.

Does any new parent, even if you're not a first-time parent, ever really know what to do?

I don't want to go all Michael Jackson on you, but I never really had a childhood.

Nothing pleases me more than when somebody who was awe-inspired to be working with me realizes I'm just another schmuck that they're bored of hanging out with on a set. I love that moment. I like it when that persistent illusion is smashed.

Every time I feel that I really hit critical mass and I'm in the right place is when I feel like the director and I become a third thing, and that's the character.

I've noticed that worrying is like praying for what you don't want to happen.

Life is just so painful and messy and hard and worth it and all that stuff.

If you're doing a drama that has some comedic elements you can't forget that it's primarily a very serious film that has some light relief.

In movies, people seem to be more emotional than they would ever be if that situation was actually happening to them.

I guess the issue for me is to keep things dynamic.

I had this bad-boy-from-New York vibe going, dressed like a punk rocker with spiky hair.

Worrying is like praying for something you don't want to happen.

Worrying is like praying for something you don't want to happen. I have such an overwhelming sense that if you're in the right state of heart, the next right thing appears to you.

It's hard to get out of the barrel. It's slippery around the edges and people are happy to see you fall back in.

It's a very smart and heartfelt movie and that's why, I think, we're all drawn to it. We really showed up for this with this collective idea that it was really ambitious, but we felt we all really had something to gain from it.

I think I just never wanted to be the creepy guy where people say, 'Why do his leading ladies keep getting younger and younger, and why do they think he's so hot even though we know that the girl who's playing this part actually has a handsome boyfriend?'

I always think part of success is being able to replicate results, taking what is interesting or viable about yourself as a professional person and seeing if you bring it into different situations with similar results.