Armitage Quotes & Sayings

The central thesis of the American failure in Afghanistan - the one you'll hear from politicians and pundits and even scholars - was succinctly propounded by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage: 'The war in Iraq drained resources from Afghanistan before things were under control'. — Anand Gopal

The narrative that Peter Jackson has put into 'The Battle of the Five Armies,' it stands alone as a film. Rather than just finishing off the story, it's like a whole new adventure all of its own. I'm very excited about it. — Richard C. Armitage

Personally, I'm not interested in getting more money for what I do; I'm just interested in more money being put into the production. — Richard C. Armitage

I'd say that, to be a good deal maker, you have to have 3 basic characteristics - timing, timing, and timing. — Richard Armitage

I'm looking forward to getting fat and old. — Richard C. Armitage

As far as this citizen is concerned, the decision to commit men and women, who are also sons and daughters, to combat is an extraordinarily important one, and not to be done to just feel good; to be done to absolutely accomplish a mission. — Richard Armitage

It fills me with dismay sometimes when you look at the scripts that do come to you that are primarily focused on violence. There are so many other things to play around with. — Richard C. Armitage

I value my ability to keep state secrets. — Richard Armitage

I have been to the theater more since I have lived in New York than I ever really did in London working on a television show. — Richard C. Armitage

Every word carries its own surprises and offers its own rewards to the reflective mind. — George Armitage Miller

My problem is that I have been persecuted by an integer. — George Armitage Miller

The scariest stunt I've ever done was on 'Captain America.' We were doing some underwater sequence. I was in a submarine, and Chris Evans had to break the glass, and the water had to fill up quickly in the submarine. — Richard C. Armitage

Our President feels, and apparently many in the United Nations Security Council feel, that it is necessary to disarm Iraq before Iraq can again use weapons of mass destruction on her neighbors or she makes some liaison with terrorists who will use these weapons either against Iraq's neighbors or ourselves. — Richard Armitage

I would not suggest the U.S. should sit down with the North Koreans bilaterally immediately after they've fired missiles - because the appearance is that you reward bad behavior. But if North Korea behaves for some period of time, I would pretty much favor direct talks. — Richard Armitage

Someone told me a woman bought a dog so she could take it to the same park where I go running, but I'm hoping that's rubbish. — Richard C. Armitage

Whatever I lack in talent I have in stamina. — Richard C. Armitage

Give me a character that has an heroic quality, and I'll go there. — Richard C. Armitage

You can spend a bit of yourself when you give yourself to a character. At the end of a job, you have to remind yourself who and what you are. — Richard C. Armitage

As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of poets: those who want to tell stories and sing songs, and those who want to work out the chemical equation for language and pass on their experiments as poetry. — Simon Armitage

The war we are fighting today against terrorism is a multifaceted fight. We have to use every tool in our toolkit to wage this war - diplomacy, finance, intelligence, law enforcement, and of course, military power - and we are developing new tools as we go along. — Richard Armitage

God help us both if this is summer.
The sun shines all day and all night
but it has no warmth, no light, no colour. — Simon Armitage

The campaign against terrorism is going to be global and it's going to be long and there's reason to expect there will be difficulties along the way. — Richard Armitage

The problem with me is I read everything, but it's only the bad stuff that stays with me. It's weird, you only need to be told something once and it stays with you. — Richard Armitage

I wondered if people might not have had enough of Simon Armitage and wondered whether I hadn't had enough of Simon Armitage. — Simon Armitage

The bad guys have all the fun! — Richard Armitage

You can't reject anything in your life as an artist. Everything has its use. — Richard C. Armitage

I confess I've got a yearning to go to Los Angeles, but I can't work out if it is because a lot of British actors seem to go or because there's this perception that the bottom has fallen out of British drama, so therefore, it's the place to head for. — Richard C. Armitage

They said we probably wouldn't be let back into Canada, suggesting we'd just have to live forever on the bridge, cadging fruit and peanuts from passing motorists and drinking the spray thrown up by the mighty falls, but the guard at the north end just smiled and waved us through. — Simon Armitage

You fight for certain roles, and you realise they're being filled by television and film actors, because theatre is constantly fighting for survival and they need names and faces and ticket sales. — Richard C. Armitage

Tolkien made dwarf sign language because, you know, it's too loud to talk in the mines. — Richard C. Armitage

You're beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light at your miniature feet — Simon Armitage

I want to be strong enough to cope with the roles, but I don't want to be cast as the guy that takes his shirt off. — Richard C. Armitage

Killing time in the precinct, I find a copy of one of my early volumes in a dump-bin on the pavement outside the charity shop. The price is 10p. It is a signed copy. Under the signature, in my own handwriting, are the words, "To mum and dad". — Simon Armitage

Brace and be brisk,
commoner, carry your heart like an egg
on a spoon, be fleet through the concourse, primed
for that point in time when the world goes bust — Simon Armitage

A terrorist is one who kills innocents for the pursuit of a political aim. — Richard Armitage

I must say I've rarely been described as 'diplomat.' — Richard Armitage

If you're used to being a maverick, then people don't get surprised when you start acting strangely. — Richard C. Armitage

I try to keep at a non-obsessive level of fitness. It's not about looking great, it's about just feeling good. So I do a lot of yoga. Bikram just blows my mind. It's mental as well as physical; if I don't train, I get very depressed. — Richard C. Armitage

I didn't become an actor because I thought I'd make lots of money. — Richard C. Armitage

Molly and Armitage ate in silence, while Case sawed shakily at his steak, reducing it to uneaten bite-sized fragments, which he pushed around in the rich sauce, finally abandoning the whole thing. 'Jesus,' Molly said, her own plate empty, 'gimme that. You know what this costs?' She took his plate. 'They gotta raise a whole animal for years and then they kill it. This isn't vat stuff.' She forked a mouthful up and chewed. 'Not — William Gibson

I think there was a pretty smooth hand-off from the administration of President Clinton to the administration of President Bush, particularly in the counterterrorism area. The reason I say that is because there was, for transitions, I think a stunning continuity. — Richard Armitage

Where does the hand become the wrist?
where does the neck become the shoulder? The watershed
and then the weight, whatever turns up and tips us over that
razor's edge
between something and nothing, between
one and the other. — Simon Armitage

Mrs. Armitage had been different, although she was old too. That was in New York at the San Juan Laundry on Fifteenth Street. Puerto Ricans. Suds overflowing onto the floor. I was a young mother then and washed diapers on Thursday mornings. She lived above me, in 4-C. One morning at the laundry she gave me a key and I took it. She said that if I didn't see her on Thursdays it meant she was dead and would I please go find her body. That was a terrible thing to ask of someone; also then I had to do my laundry on Thursdays. — Lucia Berlin

I think that although we say we don't want to be the policeman of the world and et cetera, when 911 is dialed, it's the United States that has to answer the call. — Richard Armitage

Some of the mail I've had has been weird. When I played Guy of Gisborne, a woman crocheted a mini-version of me. — Richard C. Armitage

I'm not interested in building wealth, which is kind of naive and probably frowned on, living in America. It's something that people don't necessarily understand, but if I die poor, I die poor. — Richard C. Armitage

I'm the only honest person in Washington. — Richard Armitage

I don't really like making too much of a statement with what I'm wearing. — Richard C. Armitage

I want to live in Middle-earth, actually. — Richard C. Armitage

I'm a late developer in everything. I have a fast mind and fast metabolism, and I'm an intense worker, but in terms of life development, I'm way behind. — Richard C. Armitage

I once stood in the middle of New York city watching my name go round the electronic zipper sign in Times Square and I felt pretty thrilled, but not quite as thrilled as I felt when I saw my name in the 'Examiner' for the first time. — Simon Armitage

There are many countries who have traditionally sponsored terrorism. Iraq is one, though it appears the majority of the terrorism committed by Saddam Hussein is on his own citizens. Iran in this regard. Syria, with their close support of Hezbollah, is noteworthy in this respect. — Richard Armitage

I'd like to act in a film without special effects. — Richard C. Armitage

I'm not much of a show-off. — Richard C. Armitage

The inspectors also found Iraq had developed effective means for dispersing these materials: unmanned aerial vehicles, spray devices, special munitions. We don't know where any of it is. And the last 60 days of new inspections have turned up no additional information that could allay any concerns about this military capability. — Richard Armitage

According to the United Nations Special Commission [UNSCOM], which carried out inspections in Iraq for the better part of a decade, Iraq possesses some 25,000 liters of anthrax. This is, for the record, more than 5 million teaspoons of anthrax. And we have no idea where any of it is. Saddam Hussein has never accounted for one grain of it. — Richard Armitage

Statistics may be defined as the discipline concerned with the treatment of numerical data derived from groups of individuals. — Peter Armitage

As an actor, you're like, 'Yeah, I want that phone call from Peter Jackson saying, 'You're my first choice for Thorin Oakenshield.' — Richard C. Armitage

There are ways to pursue political change. In a democracy, it's through the ballot box. There are other ways, and many democracies have many different systems of democracy. — Richard Armitage

I think insanity is the hardest thing to play. — Richard C. Armitage

I've never been that cute kid that was forgiven for being naughty. — Richard C. Armitage

I think most five-foot-two people would be quite offended if they were to be called dwarves. — Richard C. Armitage

I feel like my imagination was crafted by Tolkien. He seemed to tap into that childhood intrigue of secret doors and hidden worlds. — Richard C. Armitage

What we said publicly is that we know that Saddam Hussein has chemical weapons, he's used them; we know about his biological weapons programs; and in the nuclear equation, left to his own devices, with no fissile material, by the end of the decade, he'll have a nuclear weapon. But if fissile material is provided to Saddam Hussein, he'll have a nuclear weapon within a year, so I'd say the year is the outside timetable. — Richard Armitage

Monet was like a conductor. He painted with quite a straight arm and used bold strokes. — Richard C. Armitage

I never like to go out of character when filming starts. I fear that if I do, I might not be able to pick it up again. — Richard C. Armitage

Armitage smiled, a smile that meant as much as the twitch of some insect's antenna. — William Gibson

Once you don't smile on film, they say, 'Let's have that bloke who doesn't smile.' — Richard C. Armitage

You know, to an extent, Method acting feels occasionally lazy. — Richard C. Armitage

My instruction to my parents is that I would rather they enjoy their retirement than leave me anything when they go. I am much happier watching them enjoying life. — Richard C. Armitage

Well, I think finding the weapons of mass destruction is going to be quite time consuming. I know we've uncovered some documents, we'll have to exploit them, and we're going to have to blanket a country the size of California and search, I think, quite rigorously, but we'll come up with them. — Richard Armitage

You've got to have baddies that you can boo. — Richard C. Armitage

I went into musical theatre, which I'm not really cut out for - I'm not as skilled at it as other people. — Richard C. Armitage

People get to know me slowly and over the course of time. I'll probably still be a newcomer when I'm 60. — Richard C. Armitage

We also pass a farmer in his yard, power-washing a donkey with a high-pressure hose. — Simon Armitage

The Churches of the Standing Order were filled with unconverted persons, with many who had grown up in them from infancy, being introduced at that time by christening; and but a small proportion of their members made any claim to a spiritual regeneration. The intuitions of a converted soul recoil from Church associations with those whose only claim to membership in Christ's mystical body is a ceremony performed over an unconscious infant, for the renewed man seeks fellowship with those who, like himself, have exercised faith in Christ's saving merits, and he is likely to take the Scriptures for his guide in seeking his Church home. — Thomas Armitage

There is no sign, not one sign, that the Iraqi regime has any intent to comply fully with the terms of Resolution 1441, just as it has failed to comply with previous U.N. Security Council resolutions. The international community gave Iraq one final opportunity to disarm peacefully, and that opportunity has run its course. Dr. Blix [Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector] told us on Monday that there has been no progress toward credible, verifiable disarmament. — Richard Armitage

Secretary Clinton has dramatically changed the face of U.S. foreign policy globally for the good. But I wish she had been unleashed more by the White House. — Richard Armitage

Well, the United States has said that the disarmament of Iraq is the top priority, but we have also noted that there are many other United Nations Security Council Resolutions which are on the books, including the necessity to respect the human rights of all the citizens of Iraq that we're very interested in. — Richard Armitage

This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture.
Keep hold of what you have, it will harm no other,
for hatred comes home to the hand that chose it. — Simon Armitage

It reminds me to say that staying local should never be about looking at the world through a closed window, but about making a home then throwing the doors open and inviting the world in. — Simon Armitage

Diplomacy is much more than just talking to your friends ... You've got to talk to people who aren't our friends, and even people you dislike. — Richard Armitage

I'd like to live off-grid. — Richard C. Armitage

My mum will not speak above a low whisper in public because she doesn't want to draw attention to herself. — Richard C. Armitage

I think, as a general matter, clearly, the United States globally supports the development of democracy and the democratic yearnings of all people. — Richard Armitage

Well, first of all, I have to say that Iraq has already used weapons of mass destruction against her own people and against Iranians during their long war, so we know that weapons of mass destruction are existent with the Iraqis. — Richard Armitage

There's a very strong force in Tolkien's characters. — Richard C. Armitage

I think my fighting skills have certainly been improved by working with Peter Jackson. — Richard C. Armitage

I love being grungy and dirty. — Richard C. Armitage

North Korea is not an insane nation. It is not a crazy nation. — Richard Armitage

Stella was one of Mr Bullock's 'chorus girls' and confessed (readily) to being a 'striptease artiste' but Mr Armitage the opera singer said, "We're all artistes here, darling."
"What a bloody fairy that man is," Mr Bullock muttered, "put him in the army, that would sort him out." "I doubt it," Miss Woolf said. (And it did rather beg the question why the strapping Mr Bullock himself had not been called up for active service.) "So," Mr Bullock concluded, "we've got a Yid, a pansy and a tart, sounds like a dirty music-hall joke."
"It is intolerance that has brought us to this pass, Mr Bullock," Miss Woolf reproved him midly. — Kate Atkinson

Prose fills a space, like a liquid poured in from the top, but poetry occupies it, arrays itself in formation, sets up camp and refuses to budge. — Simon Armitage

You get up one day and somebody has taken one of the mountains away — Simon Armitage

Let's face it, the Obama administration was handed a pretty poor deal from the previous administration. — Richard Armitage

I'm on page 12 of 80 of Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus: Waves were never the tide but ripples, spawned by moon-coloured ships of war. — Simon Armitage

The melancholy comes over me, the dismal misery of not knowing where I am, or perhaps losing any sense of who I am, as if the mist is bringing about an evaporation of identity, all the certainties of the self leaching away into the cloud. — Simon Armitage

I think most conflicts do end with negotiated settlements; some don't, but most do. — Richard Armitage

I've done an awful lot of skiing all over Europe: I've done Italy, Austria, France. I skied loads in New Zealand - I did pretty much every ski slope I could find. — Richard C. Armitage

I've become one of those actors who find it difficult to say 'no' when things are offered. — Richard C. Armitage

Today, Iraq is an immediate danger to our nation. This time, we cannot wait. We cannot wait for Saddam Hussein to take a devastating action or to transfer a weapon of mass destruction to someone else who will. After September 11th, it is simply no longer an option to sit back and contemplate an enemy - one with a stated intent to harm us, a track record and the means, and just wait for him to strike in order to protect ourselves. — Richard Armitage