"The more the responsibility and expectations on me, the more I like it. I always love to accept challenges, I get an added inspiration to do better. Tough challenges always help to bring out the best in me."

“We are all so bent and determined to get what we want, we miss the lessons that could be learned from life's experiences. Many of my AIDS patients discovered that the last year of their lives was by far their best. Many have said they wouldn't have traded the rich quality of that last year of life for a healthier body. Sadly, it is only when tragedy strikes that most of us begin attending to the deeper aspects of life. It is only then that we attempt to go beyond surface concerns-what we look like, how much money we make, and so forth-to discover what's really important.”

“I just wanted to find out where the boundaries were. So far I've found there aren't any. I just wanted to be stopped, and no one will stop me.”

Source : "You can puff all you like Damien, but the wind's gone out of Britart" by Nicola Kuhn, www.theguardian.com. March 16, 1999.

“Michigan State is always welcome at Ann Arbor. Your teams in all the various branches of athletics are more frequent visitors here than those of any other institution. This is as it should be, for not two universities are closer together in every way than Michigan State and Michigan.”

“Optimism can be relearnt.”

“I hear people everywhere saying that the trouble with our time is that we have no great leaders any more. If we look back we always had them. But to me it seems there is a very profound reason why there are no great leaders any more. It is because they are no longer needed. The message is clear. You no longer want to be led from the outside. Every man must be his own leader. He now knows enough not to follow other people. He must follow the light that's within himself, and through this light he will create a new community.”

“People are always asking me what the world will be like economically in the year 2000. I do know this: in the year 2000, no matter what else happens, there will still be good food in France.”

“You can't go into a shop and buy a good game of golf.”

“I enjoy playing characters where the silence is loud.”

Source : "Gary Oldman: from Sid to Smiley: the rollercoaster story of a true British great" by Xan Brooks, www.theguardian.com. February 9, 2012.