You should be careful what you wish for, as the reasons for war get confused. One person can be very clear in their motives, but others can have different agendas.

In terms of jumping into a character's skin, I try to immerse myself in the role as much as possible to bring me closer to them. All I do is what's required to achieve what I want to achieve.

Method acting is a label I don't really understand, because there's a method to everybody's acting.

Fairfax was incredibly important to the shaping of the country.

I just love jumping into someone else's life. It is a relatively cheap way to experience things you would be too scared to contemplate in your own life.

People go to see a film because it's a great story and it's visually exciting to watch.

Sometimes you just can't walk away from films you're offered, like the Dylan Thomas thing.

Being a salesman and an actor were not that dissimilar: It is a good lesson in covering up your feelings. No one wants to buy from someone who looks depressed.

I'm doing a Dylan Thomas film, Map of Love, with Mick Jagger producing again. It's a wonderful script.

I don't like acting things; I like feeling things.

I got involved in script development from the beginning. It was nice to see how a film gets made right from the beginning. It was quite hands-on for me.

You're making a movie, not a documentary. If you made a film like the historians would like you to make, you're not going to go and see it. I'd rather see paint dry.

It's difficult to get films made, especially films about poets.

Sometimes people say to you that you should try to be in a bigger film, but it's the way it pans out.

I am an actor through and through.

You should be careful what you wish for, as the reasons for war get confused. One person can be very clear in their motives, but others can have different agendas.

Sometimes it is easier to play someone who is far away from you.

What was the reason for invading Iraq' Was it a humanitarian crusade or an economic one' I would be inclined to say the latter. It was the same with the Civil War, because the landed gentry's money was being stolen by the king.

The point is to be involved in the moment.

My focus never wavered; I never accepted the film was not going to be finished.

It quite often happens that they attach a name to a project and it doesn't get all the financing it needs.

The success of the film is down to the crew.

When you do bigger films, the financiers take more risks.

With the situation now, people might be intrigued to see how a country coped with war all those years ago.

I try and do films I know I'm going to enjoy watching as well as being in.

You'd have to have one hell of an imagination to completely make up a story, but historians are very anal about what they think should be portrayed on screen. Thankfully they don't make movies; we do.

You couldn't take football away from me, you couldn't take acting away from me.

You grow up a lot in terms of your understanding of the industry and how to deal with the corporate things.

When I'm playing a character like Jonathan in Ripley's Game I want to be in the moment when he's feeling pain; this very ordinary person who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances.

It's nice to be asked to do good projects.

I tend to do golf charity things because it's much safer and you don't get much chance of a broken arm or leg.

Sometimes, his methods and his motives are questionable and even his morals are questionable in the way he does things. But I think his intention is always to protect his daughter.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

Those who joined us for selfish personal reasons, for a career or other motives will be the ones to leave.

My actions to promote peace, the mediation missions which I carried out during many conflicts, which very often occurred between brothers of the same country, are not driven by any ulterior motives or any calculations based on personal ambitions.

Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions - which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.

In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets.

It must inquire not merely about the circumstances of the time in general, but in particular about the writer's position with regard to these things, the interests and motives, the leading ideas of his literary activity.

People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware.

I am convinced that the majority of people would be generous from selfish motives, if they had the opportunity.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it.

Men killing other men really is an extraordinary phenomenon. Why does it happen? And how long has it gone on? And have the motives changed?

What we believe to be the motives of our conduct are usually but the pretexts for it.

But I have the satisfaction, at the same time, to reflect that the impression to be made depends upon the consistency of the charge and the motives of the prosecutors.

It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

Even in political considerations, now-a-days, you have stronger motives to feel interested in the fate of Europe than in the fate of the Central or Southern parts of America.

Living en famille provides the strongest motives for rudeness combined with the maximum opportunity for displaying it.