I sometimes find that playing the bad guy, or villains, or psychopaths tend to be much more psychologically rewarding. And you can really push it, you can push the limits, and get away with it.

I'm proud of Lord of the Rings. I think it's a once in a lifetime role, and a once in a lifetime film. It was made with so much care and passion and meticulous detail and everybody was so behind it.

Listen to people and treat people as you find them. There's an inherent goodness in most people. Don't pre-judge people - that was me Mam's advice anyway.

If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it.

My family thought the fascination with acting was just another fad.

Lord of the Rings was just so much enjoyment. It was over about the space of a year that I was filming. It's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done, so emotional.

I'd been trying for a while to get parts that weren't just the English bad guy, so it was quite refreshing to be playing someone who was a compassionate, decent guy.

I'm still Sean that me mates went to school with, not Sean the film star. And that's the way I prefer to be.

It was such an interesting character and the film really explored his friendship with Bond and how it all went wrong, so it was a very personal journey for both characters.

To be honest, you have to do a big Hollywood film to get enough money to do a good independent film!

I had no intention of being an actor. I was quite good at it. I was pretty capable at other things but never any good at anything.

In Greece wise men speak and fools decide.

I'm just dying to return to the Octagon and do the thing I most love in my life. That's what I want right now.

Sudden resolutions, like the sudden rise of mercury in a barometer, indicate little else than the variability of the weather.

You deserve whoever governs you ... Everyone is responsible for the actions of their leaders.

We all flow from one fountain.

What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.

Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive

American Sniper focuses on a soldier with 160 kills, or as Harvey Weinstein calls it, a slow morning.

I didn’t go up there to die. I went up there to live.

You're never allowed to step on people to get ahead, but you can step over them if they're in your way.