Hugh Laurie Quotes (31 Quotes)

It's not his physical gait that is transforming, ... It's the having one hand. It's being one-handed. I find that much more constricting than walking with a limp. Actually walking with a limp is not that troubling. But to be one-handed, to drink a cup of tea and put two sugars in, and open a door and answer a telephone -- it all becomes incredibly time-consuming. Every scene, for me, is about, where am I going to park the cane When I pick up this, where am I going to put the cane That's a physical constraint. But, you know, you adapt incredibly quickly. Human beings do. We're very quick.

One of the principal goals in my life has been to avoid embarrassing my children by doing the job I do. I hope I've managed to do that, and I hope that, with the job I'm in now, they are, if not proud, at least unembarrassed by it. I must say, my three are most agreeable children, who do nothing but delight me.

If your life, or the life of someone you love, is hanging in the balance, of course you would withstand any amount of abuse to get the job done and to get the life saved. Of course, you have to be convinced that person knows what they're doing. In real life, you have no way of knowing that you're dealing with the best person for the job. It's only on television that you can know that.

I don't talk like House, or walk like him. I certainly don't think like him. I don't like to think for more than 15 minutes at a stretch actually; I am a fragile flower.

He worked as a doctor for 30 years and as far as I know, never stood up in front of millions of people and got a gold shiny thing for it, which seems ridiculous someone who pretends to do that should be honored and recognized, but it's a crazy world, you

To be able to pretend to be something that I'm frankly not is very liberating and exciting.

I never was someone who was at ease with happiness.

To me, he's a hero, ... He's not polite. He's not someone you want to take home to meet your mother, necessarily. This is a guy in search of truth. Incidentally, that truth one day could save your life or the life of someone you love. That's a heroic thing.

They, all of them, work incredibly hard to make me seem clever and heroic, neither of which I am.

I feel like I'm working on an oil rig right now. I'm away from home a lot.

He was a very gentle soul and, I think, a very good doctor. And I'm probably being paid more to become a fake version of my own father.

I run six-to-eight miles a day, plus weights and aerobics in the lunch hour. I also lie a lot, which keeps me thin.

I have been instrumental in banning bottled water on the set. It hasn't gone that well with the crew... so I replaced it with tequila.

I have my moments. Ever since I was a boy, I never was someone who was at ease with happiness. Too often I embrace introspection and self-doubt. I wish I could embrace the good things.

I feel like a hostage to fortune. Not that I am complaining. I wanted to play the role. But in truth I didn't think the show would be such a success. OK, I thought it would fail. Not because it was bad. I was confident it was good, but plenty of good things just sort of wither on the vine.

People assume that I'm very highly trained, that I studied and did years and years of Shakespeare. I have no training whatsoever and I've only done one Shakespeare play at university. If people want to believe that, I'm happy to go along with it.

I couldn't imagine what Fox thought they were doing, contemplating such a jagged protagonist for a prime-time drama. I only knew that I wanted the role very much.

Seems to me that this business, for actors anyway, is not so much about whether or not you do good work. It's about whether or not you get the chance to do good work.

Plainly, if your life is hanging in the balance, the most important thing to you at that moment is going to see the best person for the job,

To drink a cup of tea and put two sugars in and open a door and answer a telephone becomes incredibly time-consuming, ... Every scene for me is about, where am I going to park the cane When I pick this up, where am I going to put the cane That's a physical constraint.

Perfection is intensely annoying. Audiences were ready for a character who didn't obey the usual pieties of modern life.

As a real person, he wouldn't last a minute, would he? But drama is about imperfection. And we've moved away from the aspirational hero. We got tired of it, it was dull. If I was House's friend, I would hate it. How he so resolutely refuses to be happy or take the kind-hearted road. But we don't always like morally good people, do we?

Driving a motorcycle is like flying. All your senses are alive. When I ride through Beverly Hills in the early morning, and all the sprinklers have turned off, the scents that wash over me are just heavenly. Being House is like flying, too. You're free of the gravity of what people think.

I don't have a single complete show or movie or anything else that I could look at and say, "Nailed that one." But endless dissatisfaction is, I suppose, what gets us out of bed in the morning.

There's the clown in House, there's an adolescent in him, a child, a playful side. There's also a tormented self-destroyer as well. I get the best of all possible worlds.

I am terribly conscious of the fact that the world doesn't need any more actors. There are so many brilliant actors around that one more twit like me joining the back of the queue seems completely unnecessary.

I find it preposterous. I can see in some ways I am playing a sexy character. The idea of a damaged genius is an interesting, intriguing character, but it has nothing to do with me . . . I think whoever is playing this role would be in the position I am now.

I just feel like that's a young person's game. It's partly because you spend your whole time mocking authority figures, and once you reach the age where you could be a general or a bishop or a politician, it means something different. It stops being the kid in class doing impressions of the teacher.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to simply walk down the street. In New York, I dashed in to buy a big pair of sunglasses to conceal myself, but the guy behind the counter shouted 'Hey! It's Dr. House.'

I didn't realize House would be the central character, more the bitter comic relief appearing occasionally. I relish his wounded nature - the lameness, the scarred Byronic hero.

My dad gave me my first bike at 16. I soon fell off and was in a wheelchair for weeks. I haven't fallen since.