Pierce Brosnan quotes: about playing Bond, acquiring the finer things in life, cancer versus death, his ultimate goal in life, and more.
“A man becomes what he dreams.”
“I think you make the best with what you’ve got, you know? Sometimes you have very little. And you just always try to rise to higher ground, because you’re going to suffer one way or the other, so you just hope that you have strength and perseverance and good friends and faith – some kind of faith – to endure and move on to greener pastures.”
“When people don’t believe in you, you have to believe in yourself.”
“You can get totally messed up trying to please everyone with what you do, but ultimately, you have to please yourself.”
“It’s good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.”
“You get tangled up in your own ego of how you’re perceived. You can lose your way.”
“Regret is usually a waste of time. As is gloating.”
“You have to move forward. It’s constantly changing. Everything changes and everything falls apart. You have to be nimble and on your toes and accessible to it all. Not everyone is on board with this.”
“Some people have a tendency to get knocked down in this business and sulk and whine, and they just create a rod for their back, really. You have to have broad shoulders and get through it.”
“Certain projects find you at the right time.”
“You’re always going to have to prove yourself.”
“I realize how precious life is, probably because I’ve seen how it can be taken away.”
“Maybe sometimes the best things are worth waiting for… possibly.”
“As you get older, there’s a loosening of the ties to the ego and the posturing of who you are and how you behave.”
“There will be time enough some day to work less.”
“Education isn’t a result. It’s a process.”
“It always helps to have a bit of prayer in your back pocket. At the end of the day, you have to have something, and for me, that is God, Jesus, my Catholic upbringing, my faith.”
“God has been good to me. My faith has been good to me in the moments of deepest suffering, doubt and fear.”
“My religious philosophy is kindness. Try to be kind. That’s something worth achieving.”
“Oh, humiliation is poisonous. It’s one of the deepest pains of being human.”
“The like factor is a great thing. Love cannot burn constantly. It’s very hard for it to be so intense. But it’s wonderful.”
“I know something about life and being a father and the worries and the fears of bringing up children.”
“Being a father is a huge responsibility, but a satisfying one.”
“Love is a lot like dancing; you just surrender to the music.”
“Love means that everything is right with the world. Love and only love. Love means that you are content within your own heart and in the presence of the person that you love, who fills your day and makes you stronger and wiser, and gives you the confidence to go out into the world. Love is just the most beautiful, joyous feeling.”
“I’m one of those guys who believes that you need a strong woman in your life.”
“I’m Irish, for God’s sake. I’m a romantic.”
“Be good to people, be kind to people.”
“Cancer is a very sad thing, but you can always take something from every experience.”
“When you go through a long illness, certainly one of cancer, there’s a certain release from it and relief that it has come to an end, because the suffering can be unbearable, as opposed to an abrupt stop to life when they go out the door and there’s a loved one who never comes home because of some accident.”
“Dealing with death is there forever, really, you know, because we all have to face it.”
“I try to be as disciplined as I possibly can. I try to live a fairly kind of clean life. I do yoga; I cycle and do weights and swim. I do whatever it takes.”
“I’ve lived a lot of life. There’s loss. There’s success. There’s loss. There’s doubts. And there’s some heartbeat there.”
“No one can escape life’s pain. That’s life.”
“I had big dreams when I was a boy. And I can’t say that I never saw a beach house in Malibu in those dreams.”
“Childhood was fairly solitary. I grew up in a very small town called Navan in County Meath. I never knew my father. He left when I was an infant and I was left in the care of my mother and my grandparents.”
“I was trained as an actor and taught to believe at a very young age that I could be anything and do anything, and then you find yourself painted into a corner by your own image or persona.”
“I had to make a living. I had the mortgage to pay, I had the school fees to pay. I had bread and butter to put on the table. You know your worth as an actor, but you have to get a job.”
“Once I found acting and found that I could get away with it and make a living out of it, I was thrilled. When I found acting, it was my saving grace – still is. That I get paid to do it is remarkable.”
“Acting allows me to explore new worlds, to discover characters by delving into their lives, and ultimately to become someone else entirely.”
“I believe you can only draw from your own life as an actor. All the characters I’ve played, I only have my infinite eye and the presence of my life to take from.”
“I hold Bond dear to my heart. I’ve traveled the world as an ambassador for that character, and I had a bloody great time doing it.”
“With such riches as I have in life, you’re always nervous. Being Irish, you’re waiting for something to knock it sideways.”
“I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve worked since I left drama school in 1976.”
“America gave me the great glory of coming into people’s homes every week and allowed me to last as long as I have.”
“I know what it’s like to be famous. It’s good money and it’s great fun. A real kick in the pants. People wave at you and smile at you. You get great tables in restaurants. They send you gifts – beautiful clothes and cars.”
“I have some wonderful suits in my closet, a lovely car, some refined watches. I love the finer things.”
“Being here by the ocean in Malibu. Living in this beautiful house that we built, that took so long to build. Being in my art studio, painting. Packing my bags tomorrow to go home to Kauai where we have a house. Which all sounds very grand, and I suppose it is, in some respects, but nothing comes from nothing. It all comes from hard work.”
“Intrinsically, I’m the same person I was as a young lad, and I think I still have the optimism of life, still the same wants and desires to be good and great about what I do.”
“It’s the ultimate goal every day you wake up, to be happy. At the end of the week, you want to be happy. Happy in love, happy in work, happy in life, happy with yourself. It’s pretty simple.”
Related: Sean Connery quotes.
