When I Realised Quotes

#1. As a child, I was always drawn to heroic characters. I decided I wanted to act when I realised that Superman and all those gangsters and Indians were just real people in costume.

Orlando Bloom

#2. The first record I bought was a Carl Perkins record, because I saw him at The Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho. I loved Elvis and I found out that he wrote 'Blue Suede Shoes' ... so connecting that experience of going to see him play was pretty awesome. That's when I realised I wanted to play guitar.

Josh Homme

#3. And that's when I realised that a mans' ego was like fruit; easily bruised ...

Lauren Kate

#4. I was 10 when I realised I couldn't stand football. I'd tried, obviously, before this - no one wants to give in to social pariah-hood without a fight. I had stood frozen on pitches, done some running about and shouted a lot, as though I cared.

Andrew O'Hagan

#5. And that was when I realised I wasn't the strongest man in the world after all. I was the weakest.

Charlotte McConaghy

#6. So when I realised I could sing for a living - do what I loved and be paid for it - I thought, 'This is unbelievable. Unbelievable!' And that feeling has never left me.

Tom Jones

#7. When I realised I had a facility for humour, I latched on to it, and it gave me confidence and I built my personality around it. So I subconsciously made myself become the funny one so that would be my label rather than the ginger one or the red-faced one.

Catherine Tate

#8. When I was really young, Dad wasn't that well known. I don't remember when I realised he was a writer, but I do remember him leaving his full-time job at the Central Electrical Generating Board to concentrate on books.

Rhianna Pratchett

#9. I learned that the best way to take all people, black or white, is to take them for what they think they are, then leave them alone. That was when I realised that a nigger is not a person so much as a form of behavior; a sort of obverse reflection of the white people he lives among.

William Faulkner

#10. I never wanted to be an actor until about three years ago when I realised it was what I liked doing.

Craig Roberts

#11. It was when I realised I had a new nationality: I was in exile. I am an adulterous resident: when I am in one city, I am dreaming of the other. I am an exile; citizen of the country of longing.

Suketu Mehta

#12. When I wrote 'Noughts and Crosses', I was halfway through it when I realised this was very like 'Romeo and Juliet' ... as long as you make it your own, and put your own spin on it, I think it's brilliant to use other great work to find your own voice.

Malorie Blackman

#13. When I was just about to leave, and when I realised that I wasn't going to wake up in the morning and do this again - that was probably the hardest thing for me. Leaving this family that I'd created on set, with all the cast and the crew was very sad for me.

Jared Gilman

#14. On the contrary Deepika feels inferior to other people I was surprised when I realised it. She is straightforward & very giving

Imtiaz Ali

#15. That was when I realised a sad but incontrovertible truth: I was a geek, and there was no getting around it. I could dress in Kate's clothes, but it didn't make me Kate.

Sharon Sant

#16. When I first started out in music, I was so negative. I was knee-deep in the streets. Then my friends started going to jail. They said, 'Boy, you better start taking this seriously; you got a chance to do something with your life.' That's when I realised I had to focus. The music led to the acting.

Ice-T

#17. When I realised I was transgender I was so afraid of what my transition would do to everyone else in my life and how they would react to it and would I be rejected?

Chaz Bono

#18. Since I don't come from a privileged background, I couldn't afford to be irresponsible with career decisions. I wrote two books alongside my job and resigned only when I realised I can make a living.

Amish Tripathi

#19. When I was 14, I saw someone getting their face and wrists slashed with a knife in a pub in Catford. Nobody lifted a finger. That's when I realised that violence wasn't funny. At all.

Noel Fielding

#20. I wanted to be a pilot, but I was always drawing bodies. When I realised I wanted to pursue something creative, my parents pushed me towards architecture.

Hussein Chalayan

#21. There are many reasons I feel at home in the U.K., but if I were asked to pinpoint the moment I knew I'd arrived, it might well be when I realised the British shared my love of fritters.

Yotam Ottolenghi

#22. That was when I realised that music is the most profound, magical form of communication there is.

Lesley Garrett

#23. I started a French degree at university, but packed it in when I realised I really wanted to be an actor.

James Nesbitt

#24. When I'm winning, winning, winning with a certain way why would I mess with that? When I realised there was lot to be gained from failing in some people's eyes, it made it all the more interesting!

Bob Mould

#25. When I realised I wasn't Michael Jackson and I was this 10 year old boy growing up in the suburbs, I was devastated

Darren Hayes

#26. I think it was when I realised I could talk anybody into doing just about anything I wanted them to.

Jeremy London

#27. I find awards frivolous. When I began my career, I was told that I deserved an award for a certain performance, but then I couldn't turn up on the day of the show. Then I was told that the award went to someone else. That's when I realised the truth behind it all.

Emraan Hashmi

#28. When I realised that I had feelings for men as well as women, at first I was worried and frightened, and there was a certain amount of 'Who am I? Am I a criminal?' and so on. It took me a long time to come to terms with myself. Those were painful years - painful then and painful to look back on.

Vikram Seth

#29. But I can't help thinking of the shock I felt when I finally realised it was winter, on exiting Mizuko's apartment. The summer was long gone, but I hadn't noticed until then.

Olivia Sudjic

#30. I don't distinguish between magic and art. When I got into magic, I realised I had been doing it all along, ever since I wrote my first pathetic story or poem when I was twelve or whatever. This has all been my magic, my way of dealing with it.

Alan Moore

#31. When I was little, I thought everyone in the world liked to read because it was so fun. But then I realised that was not exactly true. I want other kids to read and write more all over the world, because it helps them to understand things better.

Adora Svitak

#32. When you are brought up as a frozen child, you go on freezing. It wasn't until I had my four sons, who have brought me immense joy, that I began to thaw. That I realised how utterly extraordinary my childhood was.

John Le Carre

#33. I realised that you could easily turn any room into a cinema with a projector, so I went on and on at my parents for one. They eventually got me a projector for Christmas when I was ten, and I realised I'd made a ridiculous mistake - I'd forgotten to say 'movie' projector; I got a still one.

Kevin Brownlow

#34. My dad died when he was 60. I was only 17 and I think, psychologically, that had a huge impact on me, probably more than I realised.

Pam Ferris

#35. When I went to America, I spoke so much about who I was and gave so much away in a confessional, Irish, story-telling way that I suddenly realised I had given up a lot of myself. I had to shut up.

Pierce Brosnan

#36. I went through a phase of eating dinner in the shower because I thought, 'Why don't we do that?' Then I realised, 'Because it doesn't make any sense.' It doesn't save any time, and you can't really get into a steak and baked potato when there's water pouring on you.

Brie Larson

#37. I think it was Milosz, the Polish poet, who when he lay in a doorway and watched the bullets lifting the cobbles out of the street beside him realised that most poetry is not equipped for life in a world where people actually die. But some is.

Ted Hughes

#38. I started to think of friends I could lean on for some help, but, as always happened when I attempted this kind of social audit, I realised that far too many of them were abroad, dead, married to people who disapproved of me, or weren't really my friends, now that I came to think of it.

Hugh Laurie

#39. I discovered I loved acting at a Summer Camp. That's when I really realised that I enjoyed it and that I wanted to try it.

Jared Gilman

#40. It was only when I finished the course and left my graduation diploma on the bus that I realised I'd become an actor.

James D'arcy

#41. When my mother was dying, I cooked for her. One of the things I realised was that the smell and look of the food was key. I concentrated on how it looked on the plate. Even if the amount was small, it gave her a nourishment of a different kind.

Simon McBurney

#42. When I was sent the script for 'Homeland,' I didn't think anything of it. Three months later, my manager rang and said: 'They are interested in you.' I read it and I realised, 'Yes, I do want this.' Then I got an email saying I'd got it.

David Harewood

#43. What I've realised is that when I walk into a club, I don't feel good, I feel uncomfortable. I wonder what to do, I look for my drink ... it's not necessarily an enjoyable experience, so why would I put myself through that?

Shiloh Fernandez

#44. The good stuff was hiding the bad stuff. I realised that this was something I needed to look out for: When downsides coexist with upsides, as they often do, people are reluctant to explore what's bugging them, for the fear of being labeled complainers.

Ed Catmull

#45. Just getting auditions was rough. But also just learning how to act - when I did my first role, in a film I did which was a favour to a friend, I realised I was really bad at it.

Dave Bautista

#46. When I was about eight, I realised the person whose name was on the book got money for it, and it seemed almost too good to be true that you could get paid for making things up.

Nick Earls

#47. When people say 'stadium songs,' it's really negative. All the festival headliners, I've realised, are usually the worst bands.

Laurent Brancowitz

#48. I realised when it came to men, I did not pick the beautiful or the correct. I picked the wrong one.

Rabih Alameddine

#49. 'Back In The Saddle' - I never realised what a good riff that was, or at least how much it satisfied me. And when we play it live, it comes across much better than I ever expected it to.

Joe Perry

#50. I've realised I need a gnawing, nagging, anxious doubt when I wake at 4 A.M.

Catherine Tate

#51. I knew nothing about football, then someone showed me a film of Petit and I realised how interesting the game could be. He is divine. When I met him I could barely speak, he was so gorgeous. Women will love that show.

Ruby Wax

#52. It was that Moment when your fingers touched my skin for the first time I realised, how the fire can heal scars.

Akshay Vasu

#53. When I left Ohio when I was 17 and ended up in New York and realised that not all films had the giant crab monsters in them, it really opened up a lot of things for me.

Jim Jarmusch

#54. When I was 18 and not sure whether I wanted to be an actor, I realised that a playwright has no voice without an actor. That's my reason for acting: to get that character as right as possible for my writer. And I have never changed my philosophy.

David Suchet

#55. The first time I was in London, I went to an English greasy spoon to get some breakfast and realised that all the waiters were speaking Italian. That's when it hit me what an international city this is.

Monica Bellucci

#56. I realised that the only time I really enjoyed music was when I was in the studio writing. So even though it was a six album deal, they saw quite early on that I wasn't enjoying it as I should be. I didn't feel there was anything behind it.

Adam Rickitt

#57. I know some players like being the centre of attention and I admit that when I first became a player I liked fame, too. But that feeling lasted only for three months. Then I realised what it was really like to be the centre of attention all the time. It isn't all good.

Mario Balotelli

#58. I was brought up in a house full of women; the first time I realised no one was interrupting me was when I was on stage - that's probably the subconscious reason I became an actor.

Eddie Marsan

#59. I discover poetry when I was in elementary school and I was so fascinated by it. Because I realised if you get the right amount of syllables and the right amount of words, in the right rhyme scheme and you put it all together. You make words just bounce of a page.

Taylor Swift

#60. When I turned 30, I realised the value of time and with it, the other important things in life. That's when I did up my house, started spending time with my family and friends and did all that a normal girl would do. All these things I was balancing with my work.

Rani Mukerji

#61. The moment that changed me for ever was when I had my first seminar with my history professor at the University of Sussex. I realised that history would answer all the questions I had spent my life asking. It was an extraordinary moment.

Philippa Gregory

#62. When you have a child, you think about your personal history and what you offer them as a larger narrative, and I realised I knew nothing about my father's circumstances other than what he'd told me.

John Burnside

#63. When I found it amongst the book thief's words, I realised that we passed each other once in a while during that period, though neither of us scheduled a meeting. Personally, I had a lot of work to do. As for Hans, I think he was doing his best to avoid me.

Markus Zusak

#64. When I looked further into my mother's history, I realised that her anxieties and her neuroses could be accounted for by facts from a very early age. Her parents, William Henry Jones and Sarah Emily, were desperately poor.

John Rhys-Davies

#65. When me and my brother would go to see our daddy playing, there'd be 30 people in the audience. I was only 14 or 15, but I realised something was wrong.

Wynton Marsalis

#66. I think the language as spoken in Limerick and Cork has not really been written; 'City of Bohane' is a combination of the two. Bohane is a little kingdom. When I began writing it, I realised that it was in the future and that it was a place that didn't care about anything that happened outside it.

Kevin Barry

#67. When I started to write, I realised that you need a bit of both: the overall context as well as the individual's experience.

Antony Beevor

#68. I drank in his smell, I'd missed him so much more than I'd realised. Despite dreaming of him every night, besides my secret habit of writing Honour Hussain in curled scripts on every scrap piece of paper, I surprised myself by how much I needed him.

Ruth Ahmed

#69. I was on paper earning more money and having more success than I'd ever had. And it was also the most miserable I've ever been. When those things collided, I realised something was off. That's when I started poking around to figure out what was wrong.

Damien Rice

#70. It never occurred to me that there was anything odd about writing my own music, and so I used to just jot down little ditties and things like that. And it was only in later years I suppose when I was about nine or so, that I realised there was this thing called composing.

Richard Meale

#71. I don't know the definition of a star; I am just an actor. I prefer doing hard work, as I feel luck can't do much in absence of hard work. I am a lazy person - when I entered into this industry, I thought it was a cakewalk, but I have realised it needs a lot of patience and hard work.

Emraan Hashmi

#72. I wouldn't have been able to go to drama school when I was 19. I don't think I was even conscious of life ... I was like a zombie. But when I finished uni' I just realised ... just go and do it, stop being a knob.

Claire Foy

#73. When I was about 10 or 11, I realised that people made movies; until then, I had thought they just happened.

Jasper Fforde

#74. When I suddenly realised that coincidence is a word we use whe we are ignorant of the real causes

Albert Salvado

#75. When I turned 36 I realised - the likelihood is that in four years time I'll be 40.

Shane Warne

#76. I couldn't wait to be an adult woman, and I'm glad I felt that way as a kid because, when I grew up, I realised I live in a world where the female form is really disrespected, and society is often trying to wrestle the female form into a shape that looks more like a young boy.

Jenny Slate

#77. I'm kind of an antisocial person. I realised when I was playing in bands that I wasn't that comfortable being on-stage, and I preferred to be behind-the-scenes. I like the seclusion of composing.

Cliff Martinez

#78. I am a fellow commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. My husband used to be a lecturer at Leeds University, and we lived in Yorkshire for 11 years. When he gave up his job, we realised we could live wherever we liked.

Sophie Hannah

#79. When I was 18, and when I entered my family business, I soon realised that it wasn't as easy as I thought. I had to deal with people of my father's generation. Building trust was key to doing business.

Binod Chaudhary

#80. When I was 22, I realised I wanted to be an inventor.

Nick Woodman

#81. Then I realised that I was the god on this occasion. I had tried to help the bluebottle, but it wouldn't let me. And then I felt sorry for God because I understood his frustration. Sometimes when people offer a helping hand, it gets pushed away. People always want to help themselves first.

Cecelia Ahern

#82. It is true that women in Paris never put on make-up. It shocked me when I first got there - then I realised how much I liked it.

Olga Kurylenko

#83. I've been calling you mine. Before I'd gotten to know you, I knew I had to make you mine. It only got worse the closer we got. When Cole carried you away from me that day, I realised you weren't mine at all. I. AM. YOURS.

Kimberly Lauren

#84. When I first moved to London, I felt very homesick and yearned after the countryside a lot. Because London's hard. It's a big place, and it's lonely. It takes a while to get into it. But once I got into the flow of it and started to grow up, I realised that my home is wherever I am.

Toby Kebbell

#85. I must admit I suffered a bit when I first came to England. But then I realised that there was nothing to be intimidated by, everybody had two legs.

George Lucas

#86. When I was 14, I told my mother I intended to be in the House of Commons in the morning, in court in the afternoon and on stage in the evening. She realised then a fantasist had been born.

Helen McCrory

#87. If there is wrong [ill] on the inside, the outside will appear wrong. Therefore, you should inquire within 'why am I bothered, when others are not? So there must be wrong within me only.

Dada Bhagwan

#88. When I got my headshots done, there was this woman screaming at me to blow my lips out. She kept saying, 'You want to be like Scarlett Johansson, don't you?' In the shot, my eyes are popping out; I look terrified. I realised I'd rather not get a job than go through pain to be something I'm not.

Jessie Cave

#89. I remember a story about an Irish warrior who killed his son by mistake but when he realised he didn't mind that much because it served the son right.

Max Porter

#90. When I wasn't as attractive as I am now, I suffered at the hands of cruel children and their taunts until I realised that confidence and a bit of aesthetic care can overcome that.

Johnny Vegas

#91. Even when I was a child, I always wanted to be older. I realised just in time that it's a mistake and to enjoy my youth while I had it.

Mark Gatiss

#92. We spent four days filming in a helicopter. I had never seen London from that viewpoint - you get a sense of how big it is and how easy it is to get lost. There was one day when we couldn't find Brick Lane: we spent 25 minutes looking and then realised it was directly below us.

Asif Kapadia

#93. I was working with stem cells as part of a NASA programme. We realised that the science of stem-cell proliferation was also fundamental to cancer cells when cancer enters the phase of metastasis.

Patrick Soon-Shiong

#94. One of the great things about working on C. elegans was the fact that it was transparent, and so when I first heard that seminar describing GFP, and realised, 'I work on this transparent animal, this is going to be terrific! I'll be able to see the cells within the living animal.'

Martin Chalfie

#95. The first painting that I realised I liked was 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' by Hieronymus Bosch, when I was six years old, at the Prado in Madrid. I still find myself returning there every time I'm in the city.

Carolina Herrera

#96. I've realised that when I don't play people who are complex I get very, very bored, and then lazy, and end up being rubbish.

Sienna Miller

#97. When I was in graduate school, I had a teacher who said to me, 'Women writers should marry somebody who thinks writing is cute. Because if they really realised what writing was, they would run a mile.'

Lorrie Moore

#98. When I turned about 12 or 13, I realised that being funny wasn't about remembering jokes. It was about creating them.

Paul Merton

#99. I've realised over the years I play my best when I have time to prepare for each tournament as best as possible.

Andy Murray

#100. When I wrote 'Dear Fatty,' I realised that sitting and writing alone is an absolute joy.

Dawn French