Young actors are serious about their work and don't take any time out from it. I'm very serious about my work; there are probably only two films I've done where I had a really good time.

The guys on the stunt team are really fantastic. It's really funny, because for all the aggression they have to display on screen, they're actually really happy, good- natured people.

Every director is completely different.

Around the time of 'The Lord of the Rings,' it was a shock to me just how big it is to be on that kind of media juggernaut. It was a big thing and the scrutiny was shocking.

I hate being pigeon-holed into anything. To me, the best thing is when the next job comes and is completely different to the one that I just had.

I'd always had a big thing for the '60s.

Writers would hate me saying this, and I love words, but I have to say that cinema exists, on one level, for the power of the big image and what that image does.

I'm so fair that I didn't go in the sun as a child. When all my friends were on the beach, I was going to ballet. The teachers there didn't like you going in the sun, so I never did.

Acting is a freelance career... you never stop having to prove yourself and fight for work.

Some scripts you read and say, 'I've just got to do this' and you find a way of making it work. Some things you turn down because of the impact on family.

I think you go through a period as a teenager of being quite cool and unaffected by things.

Every life is different because you passed this way and touched history.

There’s a dream in thespace between the hammer and the nail: the dream ofabout-to-be-hit, which is a bad dream, but the nail willtake the hit if it gets to sleep inside the wood forever.

I think subconsciously because of my upbringing, I was very aware of values and morals and that's why I experienced the occasional guilt with my habits.

You keep folks so intimidated. You can give them money, access, but they're still scared. And as long as you're scared, you're on the plantation.

Throughout my career I have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back, I think I should have followed my instincts.

I have big hands. I can't do the touch-screen thing. I'm a button guy. I want to press buttons.

The whole fame and fortune thing is addictive.

We don't have a lot of space in our imaginations to allow people to expand what they do.

The lovers of romance can go elsewhere for satisfaction but where can the lovers of truth turn if not to history?

Repeating moves in an ending can be very useful. Apart from the obvious gain of time on the clock one notices that the side with the advantage gains psychological benefit.