59 Cillian Murphy Quotes

Lydia Samson
Sep 29, 2023 By Lydia Samson
Originally Published on Oct 18, 2022
Learn more about the most interesting Cillian Murphy quotes and sayings.
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Read time: 9.0 Min

Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor who is popularly known for playing the role of Tommy Shelby in the world-famous BBC TV series 'Peaky Blinders'.

He garnered fans and fame through his work on various other films and series, including 'Breakfast On Pluto', 'Sunshine', 'Red Eye', and 'Cold Mountain'. Here is a list of the best Cillian Murphy quotes about business, acting, and challenges.

Cillian Murphy Quotes About Life And Acting

The following is a list of the most renowned Cillian Murphy quotes about acting, life, challenges, and hope.

“And once you're unafraid with death, I think your capacity for violence is immediately increased. Once you're unafraid of death, you are a very, very dangerous adversary.”

- November 17, 2014, www.interviewmagazine.com, Chris Wallace.

“My only two constants are to challenge myself and to try not to repeat myself.”

“You need to be as clean of a slate as you can be, as an actor. You have to try to be open to every experience.”

- July 12. 2012, www.independent.ie.

“It's obvious that if you're going to play a character you need to amass information about that person and about their environment or their era that they're in and use as little or as much as necessary”

“I never make a distinction between doing a film in Hollywood or doing a film independently. It's just the story.”

“My wife can see always how a part affects me personally because she has to live with it.”

“If you apologize once, you do it again and again and again. Like taking bricks out of the wall of your house.”

“For me it's always been about the stories, not what medium. The medium is secondary to the stories.”

- August, 15, 2016, www.harperbazaar.com, Julie Kosin.

“I feel very lucky to be making good work still. The confidence of youth, or that sort of competitiveness you get when you're 22 or 23, the impatience – that's probably been tempered. Hopefully I'm slightly better company.”

“I always think it's a sign of a truly gifted director when they can move seamlessly between genres.”

“I'm terrible. I'm the wrong person to talk to, I really don't know a thing. I don't know if anyone will ever sit beside me on a plane again. My only two constants are to challenge myself and to try not to repeat myself. I'm not interested in a good man's life. I am interested in contradiction.”

- August 15, 2016, www.harpersbazaar.com, Julie Kosin.

“And, for any performer, to be able to go deep into character is fantastic. In film you only get to do that if you're the leading character.”

- November 17, 2014, www.interviewmagazine.com, Chris Wallace.

“I've had the pleasure and the great luck to work with some incredible actors over the years and you have to observe and learn and take something from it and try and become better yourself.”

“I like being at home with my music and my books. I've done all the partying, I've done enough partying for four or five people as a young fella. But now I like the quiet life.”

“I have kids, and that certainly puts things into perspective. I think I'm a more patient person. I hope I'm a more patient person. I'm a little more relaxed about the peripheral side of this business, which I used to find very confusing and alarming.”

- November 17, 2014, www.interviewmagazine.com, Chris Wallace.

“I enjoy all aspects of it, I don't have a preference for any medium. I think each of them has its attractions and I would hope they each inform the other in some way.”

Famous Cillian Murphy Quotes

Here is a list of the most popular and famous quotes from the Irish actor, artist, and performer, Cillian Murphy.

“I think it's necessary to keep moving forward. I've always said that the nostalgia is death, really for anyone creative.”

“I don't have a burning passion to live in America per se but I would certainly like to work there.”

“I like seeing people under pressure. I like seeing what happens to people when they're under pressure.”

“I'd love to work in America, some of my favourite films come from America.”

“I like the little bit of distance that London affords me and I like living in a world capital. I like having the culture at my fingertips.”

“If someone asks a stupid question, you can only give a stupid answer or appear arrogant.”

- March, 12, 2017, The Guardian.

“I would not rule out a musical. What I will categorically say is that I will not be in a 'Peaky Blinders' musical.”

“I like watching film, I go to the cinema, but a lot of times I go to see kids' films.”

- August 15, 2016, www.harpersbazaar.com, Julie Kosin.

“What we do as actors is we go through phases where you superficially learn all this information.”

“Patience is something that, as a young man, I didn't have - when waiting for parts to arrive or waiting for people to behave as I wanted them to.”

“I don't consider myself a shy person necessarily, but there's something about getting under the skin of a character and allowing you an abandon or a sense of courage that you would never have in your own life.”

- November 17, 2014, www.interviewmagazine.com, Chris Wallace.

“I don't care if people perceive me as always selling out because I'm doing a studio picture. For me, the whole thing is you should be diverse in your choices; that's the beauty of being an actor, you should be able to do that.”

“It's embarrassing sometimes, the way actors or musicians sometimes get made untouchable.”

“I think there's such a thing, as a performance gene. If it's in your DNA it needs to come out. For me it originally came out through music, then segued into acting and came out through there. I always needed to get up and perform.”

“I don't think they'd ever make a movie about Chuck Baker but I'd love to play Chuck Baker.”

“I remember being 18 and being fed up with everything - fed up with society, fed up with the political system, fed up with myself - and then you kind of go, 'Actually, this voting thing is amazing,' because you have a chance to change it, right?”

“Every Irish person of my generation and earlier, we were raised Catholic and we'd have to learn it in school, we'd to learn the catechism by rote.”

- December 13, 2011, www.interviewmagazine.com, Alexandria Symonds.

“All I've tried to do as an actor is follow the good writing. That's been my main drive. It's not always possible, so when you do come upon it, like when I came upon this, you realize pretty quickly this is something you need to be involved with.”

“It's only an advantage as an actor - looking younger than you are. If you can maintain it.”

“From a very young age I had an ambition to be a musician, and to do that professionally. That's what I pursued until I was about 20, playing in bands that were taken pretty seriously at that stage.”

- November 17, 2014, www.interviewmagazine.com, Chris Wallace.

“I think audiences are a lot more intelligent than what we give them credit for and understand that an actor is playing a role and that doesn't mean he can't play different types of roles.”

Interesting Cillian Murphy Quotes

Explore these interesting quotes and sayings of the Irish actor and the former lead singer of The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, Cillian Murphy.

“The best roles you have to fight for. You have to really want to do it and you have to go after it.”

“I loved The Fall; I was kind of obsessed with that show.”

- August, 12, 2016, www.hollywoodreporter.com.

“I suppose I tend to like slightly darker things - people have levelled that on me before and I accept that because in my opinion, if I mention the best movies or the best books, there's always something that's involving slightly darker element of out psyche.”

“I suppose I've always been attracted to this sort of outsider in general – in literature, in music, politics, whatever – and to the person that is able to be relentlessly themselves. I don't think that I have that quality, that strength of mind.”

“Having started out in theatre, I feel an impulse to do it as much as I can.”

“At the moment I'm doing this space movie, so I'm obsessed with physics and space travel. I know three months down the line it's gone. Then I'll be able to superficially say stuff about space.”

“There's a lot of comedy in Intermission but it's got this depth. It's not comedy for comedy's sake - it's informed by something else. I like stuff like that.”

“I'd probably have been wealthier if I had stayed with law, but pretty miserable doing it.”

“My whole career has been completely random and haphazard.”

- January, 2018, www.filmschoolrejects.com.

“Good taste is for people who can’t afford sapphires.”

“I personally think if something's not a challenge there's no point doing it because you're not gonna learn much.”

“Men and women are custodians of this society, and we both decide what's going to happen for our future. I feel that very, very strongly.”

“When you plan something well there’s no need to rush.”

“I come from a long line of teachers. Not only did I not go into the family business; I had an aborted law career and I played in bands. 'Disco Pigs' was my first professional acting experience.”

- August 14, 2005, The Seattle Times, Tom Keogh.

“I don't do karaoke. You know how some people don't like massages? They don't like massages; I don't like karaoke.”

“I’ve never done a film I didn’t believe in. I’ve never done a film for the money.”

- October 3, 2012,www.port-magazine.com.

“I learnt long ago to hate my enemies, but I’ve never loved one before.”

“I've said this before: myself and Tommy Shelby, he's the most unlike-me character I have ever played.”

“For me, Drama is conflict. I will always love film, the romance of film, sitting in the darkened room with strangers and watching a story for two hours – that will always remain and never be eroded by television.”

“You have to get what you want your own way.”

“I enjoy any chance to get in front of a microphone in a role. I'll do it.”

- September 7, 2016, New Musical Express.

Cillian Murphy Character Quotes

“You know, gentlemen, there is hell, and there is another place below hell.”

- Tommy Shelby, 'Peaky Blinders', Season 3, Episode 2.

“In France I got used to seeing men die. I never got used to seeing horses die.”

- Tommy Shelby, 'Peaky Blinders', Season 1, Episode 2.

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Sources

https://www.inspiringquotes.us/author/5516-cillian-murphy

https://quotefancy.com/cillian-murphy-quotes

https://quotecatalog.com/communicator/cillian-murphy

https://www.awakenthegreatnesswithin.com/35-inspirational-cillian-murphy-quotes-on-success/

https://motivationalfact.com/cillian-murphy-quotes/

https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/cillian-murphy-34385.php

https://www.azquotes.com/author/27282-Cillian_Murphy

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/cillian-murphy-quotes

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3193268.Cillian_Murphy

https://www.upgradingoneself.com/cillian-murphy-quotes/

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Written by Lydia Samson

Bachelor in Science specializing in Mass Communication

Lydia Samson picture

Lydia SamsonBachelor in Science specializing in Mass Communication

A diligent and driven mass communications graduate from Caleb University, Lydia has experience in media and a passion for digital marketing and communications. She is an effective communicator and team-builder with strong analytical, management, and organizational skills. She is a self-starter with a positive, can-do attitude.

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