It was only when I finished the course and left my graduation diploma on the bus that I realised I'd become an actor.

It's difficult to gauge that. With a bad guy you just know you're bad. To play a nice guy is harder - unless you are a very nice person like me of course.

It felt good doing a physical job, and going home each evening feeling like I had really done a day's work.

The reason I wanted to be an actor is that I don't want to play me for the rest of my life and make money out of that.

I talked to everyone about the project: actors and extras, members of the crew and passers by.

Now here I am playing a passionate young Irishman who would die for what he believes in.

I'm attracted to seeing how different I can be, pushing the boat out.

There is an odd sense of responsibility attached to appearing in a drama about a real piece of history. A work of fiction is fun.

There are lots of people I admire and respect, but I don't necessarily want to be like them. I'm to happy being myself.

I find it incredibly romantic that people should fight for a cause they believe in and be prepared to die for it.

Although this is a fictitious story the history is real. You don't want to re-write history but you certainly want to portray events and characters as realistically as you can.

I went further and further back through the centuries to get a sense of perspective but now at least I understand why Irish history evokes such strong passions and emotions.

I'm not really very ambitious.

It was only when I finished the course and left my graduation diploma on the bus that I realised I'd become an actor.

I don't have any expectations as an actor and being rich and famous is not my driving force.

Baddies always do get the best lines, that's the honest truth.

I'm more interested in enjoying my life and looking after my family than being hugely successful.

When I left school I went to Australia for a year and worked in the drama department of a school in Perth.

The good guy only gets the girl in a soppy way.

I don't have any expectations as an actor, and being rich and famous is not my driving force.

I'm not really very ambitious. I'm more interested in enjoying my life and looking after my family than being hugely successful.

There are lots of people I admire and respect, but I don't necessarily want to be like them. I'm too happy being myself.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

I've been a very lucky actor.

I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.

When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.

Most parts that can be played by one actor can equally well be played by another, but not this.

I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy. That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I said I wanted to work with quality actors and directors.

There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won't bring to me because they don't think I'll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.

Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.

I still feel like I'm trying to make it. It's hard to shed the struggling actor thing.

Only a great actor finds the difficulties of the actor's art infinite.

Follow the wisdom of the great actor, James Cagney, you hit your mark, you look the other guy in the eye, and you tell the truth.

I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.

In other words, I wouldn't like to be an actor if I could only be real. I like to get wild, behaviorally wild, and it's crazy to think of any form where it's just one way.

An actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you've got a situation.

Oh, well, in Los Angeles everybody is an actor, or a producer, or a writer, or a director, or an agent, or... So everybody understands the hours.

I didn't want to be an actor.