“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 like the little bit of distance that London affords me and I like living in a world capital. I like having the culture at my fingertips.

I’ve always felt kind of safe on stage, protected. I’ve talked to other performers about this and they feel the same things, particularly in the live arena. I never get nervous going on stage to do a play. Doing film or television I’ll have more butterflies.

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’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.

When people see an actor speak, they think they know him or her, whereas I’m just a face or a body to them.

Even the flowers are jealous of the curves of her body.

Stress cannot enter your body, mind, and soul without your permission.

Love yourself as you are, and take care of your body. Your body is the temple of your soul.

I don’t need the best hairstyle or the best body. Just give me a ball at my feet and I’ll show you what I can do.

Self-love is the best medicine for mind, body, and peace.

Law and order are the medicine of the body politic and when the body politic gets sick, medicine must be administered.

I mostly just listen to my body.