Because I don't really think of myself as a hunk, to be honest.

In reality, for me every role is completely different.

Ireland. Great for the spirit - very bad for the body.

Well, fluffy shirts are, by definition, very comfortable.

The little song and dance number at the end - that's me, my voice, howling out. It was a new experience for me. I've never sung before and I've certainly never sung on screen. I think I sung on stage when I was 13 and for some reason nobody's asked me to try it again since.

Because I don't really think of myself as a hunk, to be honest.

As always, there's a couple of things in the pipeline - but that pipeline is a strange and ambiguous place.

I think becoming an actor because it's a ridiculously insecure profession to go into. I feel very comfortable but very lucky. I think any time that you imagine that it's plain sailing for hereon in, then you're kidding yourself.

I think for anybody reading the book they're going to get an idea in their heads of all those characters, and I think that once that gets fixed, it's quite hard to shake.

I think I can lead a pretty anonymous life, yeah.

I knew I wanted to be an actor when I was growing up, really. So when I decided to go to university instead of drama school, it was with the intention of becoming an actor afterwards.

No, I'm not a lager lout either. I think you have to be a massive football fan to be a lager lout.

You can still have chemistry on screen without getting on with the person. But it just makes your job a lot easier if you don't have to gird your loins, if that's not quite the right phrase, every time you're going to do a scene with that person.

There's no one actor in particular that I want to model my career after, except for the people who have been able to keep their career varied and who choose things that interest them. That opportunity is all I really want.

But one of the most fantastic things about Ireland and Dublin is that the pubs are like Paris and the cafe culture. And Dublin, in many ways, is a pub culture.

Specifically, we talked about making the character of the prince not so charming, at least in the beginning, and I'm playing around with the preconceptions attached to a character. That's really what intrigued me as well because I thought it would be fun to do it.

Besides, most of the books I like involve people I could never play in a million years.

In my experience it's not essential to get on with the person that you're acting opposite.

So to answer your question, I'm not entirely sure how I ended up where I am today, in the sense that nobody in my family is an actor. It just happened by mistake.

I've not as yet found one hobby that would absorb me completely when I'm not working, but I have just bought a new apartment and didn't quite bargain for the amount of effort and time and money that that absorbs.

But no, I don't think I'm particularly drawn to the period roles or the medieval roles.

When I got back I found myself being very emotional about the time spent in Rwanda in a way that I hadn't been able to or allowed myself to be when we were there.

When something is iconic, if you're very careful and delicate, you can add onto that iconography. It can expand. People have attached so much to it themselves, and connected to it, so the risks are big, but the potential is enormous, at the same time.

Martin Luther King was a misguided leader. He worked to be recognized as the leader of black America, when what black America needs isn't a leader - it is education. Giving speeches and marching - that's not the concept that brings about real freedom, equality and justice.

The best times I had on film sets were the times the director let me express myself, but those were rare.

Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm, but the harm [that they cause] does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.

Anyone who magnifies the power of a television talk show is very unrealistic.

We can't feel anything - all that's left inside us is dust.

Aphorisms may equivocate, but they must not wobble.

There is no true love save in suffering, and in this world we have to choose either love, which is suffering, or happiness. Man is the more man - that is, the more divine - the greater his capacity for suffering, or rather, for anguish.

'In-between' is sort of - an animator does the key poses. He'll do extremes, you know, like a character reaching out for a glass of water and then another one of him drinking. And the in-betweener has to do all the drawings that goes between those two. You know it could be 12, 23 whatever in-betweens.

Justice is not to be taken by storm. She is to be wooed by slow advances.

My heart has been resuscitated as a result of becoming a mom.

What we should notice is that studies show that fathers' presence in their children's lives has a marked effect on how well their kids do later in life, so why aren't we asking how we can better liberate men from the workplace to be home with their kids more often?

Lunch is usually a salad or a sandwich. If I'm on set, I'll have catering, but I'm well behaved with that stuff. It's easy to go crazy - they know how to feed you.

Coming in as a veteran, I'd like to finish with a gold medal.

I had such a great year I didn't want to forget it.

The fundamental job of a toddler is to rule the universe.

I sell my first book to Random House, a memoir of my years as a war photographer, for twice my NBC salary.

I don't use simple words. I make games and puzzles with my songs.

Design schools are good, I guess, sometimes I visit schools, but they are very very limiting.

While I would agree that I write about serious subjects, and that they're not necessarily the most pleasant subjects or even the most pleasant people, as a writer I just think about the humorous aspects of these things - that's what keeps me going when I'm writing a story.

I would love to be a father. I had a great father who taught me how gratifying that is. I'm not going to deny myself that. I think I'd be good at it. Everybody wants that experience. I definitely do.

As an actor, I'm always critical watching others; it's just the nature of the beast. For me, any performance that doesn't cause my ego to say, 'I can do that' really signifies that it's spectacular.

Candidates and their consultants keep making the same mistake. They assume that all independents are bundled neatly together ideologically between Republicans and Democrats.

I'm not shy. I'm quiet. With my close friends. I talk a lot. But if I'm at a big dinner, I'm not gonna walk in and go introduce myself to everybody.

I came to America to become an architect. And somewhere along the line while I was still in school, I was lured into theater, and that's how I became interested in theater. My first play was something called "A Banquet for the Moon." It was a weird play.