Colin Firth: "... he's very bored. He's one of the richest men in England, and until now that's always been enough to make him attractive to women.

I remember reading a very helpful saying: 'A man who is eligible needs to entertain no one.' For me that was a great key to understand Darcy. - I thought that if he was charming as well, life would be intolerable for him. So out of both shyness and lack of necessity he remained aloof."

Jane Austen: "... the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine gentleman, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend."

Jane Austen / Jane Bennet: "Miss Bingley told me, said Jane, that he never speaks much unless among his intimate acquaintance. With them he is remarkably agreeable."