"It was like a bad version of "The Catcher In The Rye". My mother was groovy-looking and was married four times. I got booted out of three prep schools - St.Paul's, Peddie and Lawrenceville - and never got past the ninth-and-a-half grade. I was on athletics scholarships and I never went to classes." a proposito della sua infanzia.

 (Robert John Downey Sr., nato Robert John Elias, attore, sceneggiatore e regista; New York, 24 giugno 1936 – New York, 7 luglio 2021)