The adrenaline feeling of jumping out of cliffs and bikes and all of that is very specific to the film. In 'Pac Rim' I'm not doing that so much. There isn't that touch stonework for me in it, but there is a lot of action.

I'm an ambitious person. I never consider myself in competition with anyone, and I'm not saying that from an arrogant standpoint, it's just that my journey started so, so long ago, and I'm still on it and I won't stand still.

I'm rebelling against being handed a career, like, 'You're the next this; you're the next that.' I'm not the next anything, I'm the first me. I can't be myself, I can't just be Idris Elba. But that's just the nature of the business.

I think 'The Wire' really is relatable. It reflects an ongoing issue across America, about inaccuracies in major cities between rich and the poor and some of the things that go on behind the red tape of council and government bodies.

I find that a lot of actors who are good and open to challenges have lived a full life. When you walk into an audition, you have more to say for yourself because you come from the real world. It's more enticing for directors, I think.

It's weird because my parents don't really understand my business. I get fan mail all day long, but if a piece happens to get to their house, they're like, 'Oh, my God, you've got a fan! You have to write them back. You have to do it!

I dont have a place that I call home at the moment because theres no point. I mean, Im a traveling circus for a while. Its weird. Like, if I wanted to go home, theres nowhere to go. I just go to a hotel. But Ive kind of gotten used to it.

I was into Spider Man when I was a kid and that was the only comic I've ever read.

There has been a big debate about it: can a black man play a Nordic character?

The directors [who know every detail] make films that are complete, basically.

I've never had to explain Prometheus to people, ever. Most people get it.

It's actually quite criminal how 'The Wire' was systematically ignored.

I was in The Wire for three years, and I left at the highlight of that.

I've been DJing mostly, and most DJs end up producing. That's just me.

I love to play different roles. That's just the kind of actor I am.

My Father always told me that a fool at 40 is a fool for life.

People watch three or four episodes at a time of their shows.

Africans, we hold on to our youths and whip them into shape.

Waking up in TRUTH is so much better than living in a lie.

The audience loves it when you pay attention to details.

Every single film I've done, it's about the character.

I wasn't bad at school, but I was never a bookworm.

In some countries, no one knows who Idris Elba is.

The less I talk about being black, the better.

I would never be fearful of any character.

I try to fit in workouts whenever I can.

I tend to stay away from the comics.

Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.

We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to hate when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth.

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.

The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.

Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics.

Whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.

Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

I’ve made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant, I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I’m convinced of the opposite.

One must care about a world one will not see.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

We love our habits more than our income, often more than our life.

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.

The use of self control is like the use of brakes on train. It is useful when you find yourself in wrong direction but merely harmful when the direction is right

Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.