“You’re an actor who’s Irish, not an Irish actor. And you shouldn’t be limited by your extraction.”

I always think it’s a sign of a truly gifted director when they can move seamlessly between genres.

I think audiences are a lot more intelligent than what we give them credit for and understand that an actor is playing a role and that doesn’t mean he can’t play different types of roles.

I suppose I’ve always been attracted to this sort of outsider in general – in literature, in music, politics, whatever – and to the person that is able to be relentlessly themselves. I don’t think that I have that quality, that strength of mind.

I personally think if something’s not a challenge there’s no point doing it because you’re not gonna learn much.

I’m terrible. I’m the wrong person to talk to, I really don’t know a thing.

I think for me with theater, I need to take a break and then fall in love with it again. And then go do it again.

It was very much about performances, the whole ensemble thing was just great – everybody working together. Sometimes it didn’t feel like a film set. It wasn’t technically driven, it was very, very enjoyable.

I don’t have a burning passion to live in America per se but I would certainly like to work there.

My wife can see always how a part affects me personally because she has to live with it.

I’d probably have been wealthier if I had stayed with law, but pretty miserable doing it.

I’m interested in pressure, I’m interested in duress. All the great works of art, or film or literature, in my opinion, have elements of those in them.

Having started out in theatre, I feel an impulse to do it as much as I can.

I will always love film, the romance of film, sitting in the darkened room with strangers and watching a story for two hours – that will always remain and never be eroded by television.

You need to be as clean of a slate as you can be, as an actor. You have to try to be open to every experience.

That’s what acting is about, Funny wigs and voices, that’s what we do.

I loved The Fall; I was kind of obsessed with that show.

Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.

Whether the family of the Clarkes were of Norman extraction cannot be easily ascertained.