Quotes About Psychology

Some of the roles I play are very demanding. My body and brain can't separate what is real fear from what is played fear.

I like playing the bad guys. It's a way of exercising and exorcising my own personal demons.

In my experience, most players act the way they do in their own self-interest, in getting their emotions out and basically working with their own demons on court.

Denial has been a way of life for me for many years. I actually believe in denial.

I'm very good at denial.

Denial is a very powerful thing.

It seems to be a common denominator with a lot of comics, this low self-esteem thing.

Many people do remember their births, but they deny it.

I kind of like being depressed.

I seem to be able to get depressed quite easily without any reason.

If you don't have very strong emotions or very intense thoughts about something, you cannot get depressed.

What's often not acknowledged about depression is how much anger is in it.

At the beginning of 'A Christmas Carol,' Scrooge embodies one of the central tenets of depression: that one has always been this way - and always will be.

I certainly don't think comedians are more depressive than any other walk of life. I have had clinical depression, as it happens. The stress of performing didn't help, but it wasn't about being a comedian in itself.

I'm not a doctor - so I can't describe flashbacks well - but it is like you're living it again.

Alternative descriptions of the same reality evoke different emotions and different associations.

I don't have any dark desires. And I think most people don't. A few have dark desires and don't sublimate them.

I've ended up becoming my mother in some respects, despite my eight years of analysis!

A guy who's actually self destructive is quite fun to play.

What people will - or will not - laugh at is mainly determined by their social conditioning.

The interesting part of the process is developing the character, you know, why did he become that? Why is the guy a murderer, or why is this guy a pervert, or whatever he is. So that's the fun part for me to delve into the abyss.

That's my sense of how crime works: that it's not any kind of calculated evil driven by the devil, but just control disintegrating.

Actors tell stories and we play different characters, and not all of them are healthy.

I believe everyone has the ability to be hypnotised, and I think, on different days, different people will have varying levels of susceptibility.