Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Ronald Biggs

"I kicked off... and things went on from there... down and down"

About this Quote

It’s the shrug of a man narrating disaster like it’s a routine itinerary: you step on the escalator and let gravity do the rest. Ronald Biggs, the Great Train Robbery’s most notorious escape artist, turns a life of calculated risk into a casual slide. The ellipses do the real work here. They mimic a storyteller who knows the audience is already leaning in, and they create the sense of inevitability: one small action, then a chain reaction you can’t (or won’t) stop.

The intent is self-mythmaking with plausible deniability. “I kicked off” frames the beginning as a single, almost athletic gesture - not a moral choice, not a plotted crime, just a push. “Things went on from there” bleaches out agency; the subject becomes “things,” not “I.” That’s the classic outlaw’s alibi, polished for celebrity consumption: events happened around him, not because of him. Then comes the bleak punchline: “down and down.” The repetition is blunt, child-simple, and that’s why it lands. No melodrama, just the rhythm of decline.

Biggs’ broader context matters: he wasn’t merely a criminal; he became a tabloid character, a fugitive brand, a folk antihero sold back to the public through interviews and pop-culture cameos. This line plays into that economy. It asks you to see him less as a perpetrator than as a man caught in narrative momentum - the kind of person who doesn’t so much choose a legend as tumble into one.

Quote Details

TopicTough Times
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Biggs, Ronald. (2026, January 15). I kicked off... and things went on from there... down and down. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-kicked-off-and-things-went-on-from-there-down-168427/

Chicago Style
Biggs, Ronald. "I kicked off... and things went on from there... down and down." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-kicked-off-and-things-went-on-from-there-down-168427/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I kicked off... and things went on from there... down and down." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-kicked-off-and-things-went-on-from-there-down-168427/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Ronald Add to List
I kicked off... and things went on from there... down and down
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Ronald Biggs

Ronald Biggs (born August 8, 1929) is a Celebrity from United Kingdom.

12 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Reba McEntire, Musician
Reba McEntire
James L. Brooks, Producer
James L. Brooks