“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.”

And once you’re unafraid with death, I think your capacity for violence is immediately increased. Once you’re unafraid of death, you are a very, very dangerous adversary.

I really feel actors should try and do as much diverse work as possible to try and keep it interesting.

It’s obvious that if you’re going to play a character you need to amass information about that person and about their environment or their era that they’re in and use as little or as much as necessary

I don’t think they’d ever make a movie about Chuck Baker but I’d love to play Chuck Baker

I like being at home with my music and my books. I’ve done all the partying, I’ve done enough partying for four or five people as a young fella. But now I like the quiet life.

From a very young age I had an ambition to be a musician, and to do that professionally. That’s what I pursued until I was about 20, playing in bands that were taken pretty seriously at that stage.

I think you fall out of love with theater while you’re doing your eighth show of your eighteenth week and your body is saying, “Please make this end.”

I’m pretty adamant to do an American accent because you get it immediately.

For me, drama is conflict.

I come from a long line of teachers. Not only did I not go into the family business; I had an aborted law career and I played in bands. ‘Disco Pigs’ was my first professional acting experience.

I’m not interested in a good man’s life. I’m interested in contradiction.

I’ve never done a film for the money.

All I’ve tried to do as an actor is follow the good writing. That’s been my main drive. It’s not always possible, so when you do come upon it, like when I came upon this, you realize pretty quickly this is something you need to be involved with.

It’s always nice to be challenged.

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

You take the job very seriously and between action and cut, that’s where your focus should be. And then there’s a lot of levity in between and a lot of good fun.

It is not a question of starting. The start has been made. It’s a question of what’s to be done from now on.

It is not a question of starting. The start has been made. It’s a question of what’s to be done from now on.

It is not a question of starting. The start has been made. It’s a question of what’s to be done from now on.

I just take everything one at a time and make sure everything I do is the best.

I just take everything one at a time and make sure everything I do is the best.

I just take everything one at a time and make sure everything I do is the best.

This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.

This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.