In bed at night, I could be reading some book, and I’ll come across a sentence that’s totally unrelated to some scene I did years ago. But I’ll play the scene back in my mind...

I think there must be some other life forms, even if they’re microscopic.

Well, I think I’ve made 44 films and only like four times I’ve played real characters I’m just drawn to people who have a pioneer spirit, this extraordinary energy and commitment to their cause.

Well I was on the jury duty on the Deauville Film Festival, a few years ago.

I get fed up with plots that are driven by someone constantly getting information on a computer.

It’s interesting, the more successful you become the more people want to give you stuff for nothing.

I don’t think that I am a sex symbol, although it’s very flattering.

I love working with children and this young boy, Thomas Sangster, is quite a remarkable young actor. He raises your game, you know. He certainly raised mine.

If I get rejected for a part, I pick myself up and say, ‘OK, not today, maybe tomorrow I’ll get this other part or something.’

Yes, I’m Catholic; I’m proud of it. But I had lots of Protestant friends.

Acting with creatures that aren’t there is kind like acting with an actor who refuses to come out of his trailer. You still have to go on and do the scene.

I’m trying to be a comedian, you know?

I came to water late. I learned to swim at the age of 20.

America has been very, very good to me.

It’s an ongoing joy being a dad.

Queen’s University flies the flag for the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.

I was very slow in maths, geometry I actually enjoyed.

Sitting down to eat in our house is about sharing, you know, talking about the day you’ve had, be it in school or work or whatever, so that’s very important to us.

I was an OK boxer, I wasn’t great, I was OK, but I loved the discipline of getting together every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, usually Saturday afternoons too, with a whole bunch of mates and...

Kinsey’s quest was really for us all to be tolerant and accepting of each other.

Well, from an acting point of view, I bear no relation, I don’t look like Alfred Kinsey at all, but I thought somewhere in my artist’s soul, my actor’s soul, I could capture something of...

I offer my performance as prayer for someone I’ve worked with as an actor or someone who has died. The image that comes into my head as I walk to the stage, I offer that...

I can always act.

I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn’t understand what being an actor meant anymore.

For every successful actor or actress, there are countless numbers who don’t make it. The name of the game is rejection. You go to an audition and you’re told you’re too tall or you’re too...

You think your life is going one way and then suddenly, you’re on another track.

It’s best to keep acting real.

And the Institute sent me a little film footage of Kinsey himself preparing to do an interview for television to talk about his work, so that was quite valuable for me.

The Irish Catholic side was married to the life of an actor and I found out acting could be a form of prayer.

I have friends who have daughters and there’s times I think I’m glad I have boys instead of girls.

But, you know, sex is controversial, it just is and it always will be.

Acting is invigorating. But I don’t analyse it too much. It’s like a dog smelling where it’s going to do its toilet in the morning.

I think I’m past my due date. I just feel it.

I’d like to play Ian Paisley, actually. I’d need building up, though he’s very frail now.

I’m a big believer in acts of kindness, no matter how small.

Well, I think they’re all basically the same story. Every culture in the world has them. When you strip it down and analyze it, it’s the young man or girl who goes through a trial...

I try to be a hard boiled sometimes. My kids see right through it. I’m acting. It’s always, ‘When I say you’ll be back at 11, that means 11, not 11.15. Do you hear me!?’...

It was quite an intense time in Belfast in 1977 and I remember going to see it in the cinema. It was a very, very dicey area of Belfast. And the cinema was packed. In...

But, you know, there’s still an argument, there’s still ten states that outlaw premarital sex, and many more states where adultery is still outlawed and a crime.

I keep fit as much as I can.

I don’t think I’m funny.

But let’s just say, I’m Irish. I grew up in the 1950s. Religion had a very tight iron fist.

I’m still a proud Irishman, of course, but I’ve become an American citizen. I’m very, very proud of that.

I’ve made many films and only a few times I’ve played real people.

In real life, wolves will do anything to avoid contact with mankind.

But I was very, very lucky, and it was a wake up call as far as motorbikes are concerned. I never flirted with death on the bike, but now I’m totally convinced they’re death machines.

A sex symbol? A symbol of sex? I don’t think that I am a sex symbol, although it’s very flattering. I’m 59, now, so I think I’m possibly past my sell-by date. I think I...

I do tend to gravitate toward what guiding light we have. . . . If I read something that’s got those ethics in it, then I go towards it. We live in such a corporate...

I’ve had an unbelievable life. I’ve been very lucky. You do create your own luck too, you know? I never forget where I’m from. Whenever I pass a building site or see somebody digging a...

When I see great boxers, it’s like reading a wonderful poem.