I certainly had no intention of playing a man.

Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy.

There once was a demographic survey done to determine if money was connected to happiness and Ireland was the only place where this did not turn out to be true.

And by endlessly sanitizing our feelings, we actually feed a disgruntled nation.

The energy released by it is enormous and it becomes quite addictive, the power between the audience and the actor.

The Americans are very clear, and obsessed with nouns.

I would love to write the story of my upbringing in Ireland.

I find it incredibly tedious, hate that it murders itself with its own conservative pomposity.

Acting doesn't have to be threadbare misery all the time.

Once you've done one style, you leave it for a while.

People who are good at film have a relationship with the camera.

In the world of comedy, having a partner is not the most unusual thing.

There's so much to think about when you're becoming an adult, and there's so many great poems about that apprehension and excitement.

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.

We can never know the origins of the universe. The deepest secrets are the ones that keep themselves.

If your book is set in the plantation days of the slave-owning South and you write a little romance between two slave owners without acknowledging the system they live, that's a political gesture.

THE ART OF PEACE is to fulfill that which is lacking.

Here's my take on Instagram: It's so ridiculous that people can go on and play characters, and none of it [should be] taken too seriously.

I have remained resentful to this day When any but myself presumed to say That there was anything I couldn't be.

This body is a combination. It is only a fiction to say that I have one body, you another, and the sun another.

There is such sweet pain in parting that I could hang forever on thine arms, and look away my life into thine eyes.