When I was a kid I was much happier watching old movies than kids' TV, and I ended up watching all the old Ealing comedies.
— Ewan McGregor
When you take away the phone and e-mail and you don't have a million things to run around to, it allows your mind the space to think more expansively about the things that matter.
My feeling about seeing the world is that it's going to change you necessarily, just the very fact of being out there and meeting people from different cultures and different ways of life.
I worked as a waiter when I was 15 and got a chance to appreciate good, simple food. There's nothing better than a boiled egg with toast.
I've always been really uninterested in politicians and the acts of the Houses of Parliament, or government as an idea. But I'm interested in politics in that I'm a member of the world, and I have strong feelings of right and wrong, but I can't get into the ins and outs of it.
I'm lucky enough that financially I don't have to feel obliged to go for the bigger stuff. I like the stories and scripts to dictate if I want to do them.
I trained in the theatre and I love the theatre. I get such a thrill seeing anything in the theatre.
The thing about parenting rules is there aren't any. That's what makes it so difficult.
I find that the acting's getting easier - with experience, everything is more instinctual.
I like the idea of being a sculptor. Just me alone, making something - that solitary existence.
I think the script is the key. Regardless of how great everybody else is working on a film, if you're working on a script that you don't think is great, you're not gonna be able to make a great film. Whereas if the script is great, then you can.
I've never found acting that difficult.
I love acting and don't find it to be very hard. I recognize when I've nailed it, and I can be very proud of myself.
Then I left school at 16 and worked in Perth Repertory Theatre, which was quite nearby where I lived. And I worked there for about six or seven months, as part of the stage crew.
The other two things are... well, I had a huge appetite for old black and white movies on BBC 2. At the weekends they used to run matinees, and the more romantic the better.
No, no I'm not, no, but I just think... when people are naked it tells you a lot about their relationships.
If you're suddenly doing something you don't want to do for four years, just so you've got something to fall back on, by the time you come out you don't have that 16-year-old drive any more and you'll spend your life doing something you never wanted to do in the first place.
Giving kids whatever they ask for is disastrous parenting. There's no sense of something earned. I'm sorry, but when you're 12, you don't need a new cell phone every few months just because a new one comes out.
I'm in a position where I can do many things most people just daydream about.
I especially love my Moto Guzzi.
It's just fantastic to go out and meet people in the world and get to really remote places.
I think it's quite tricky for actors to release albums. It's difficult, because I'm an actor, you know, I'm not a musician. I love singing, but I don't have a big repertoire of songs that I've written; I mean, I've got a few, but nothing that I could fill an album with, and I don't want to do it just for the sake of it.
Drama school can't make you a brilliant actor, but you can do stuff for three years - you're not going to be fired. You should just go for it all, even the stuff you think is codswallop.
I don't do things lightly; I don't take a job then just phone it in - I've never done that.
I found my partner, my life partner, and I really am in love with my wife, and we have a lovely time, and we share a long history together and children together, and that's it.
I want to wear skinny jeans when I'm in my 70s. Why not? Who cares?
I think rehearsal can be important if it's done in a way that works. Often, rehearsal can be a waste of time.
The script, I always believe, is the foundation of everything. And if you don't connect to that foundation, if you don't believe in that and feel that you wanna spend three, four months of your life exploring it, then all of the other elements are secondary.
Producing good stuff can be quite tough, and it involves a lot of frustration, but I always like things to be jolly and happy, and I forget that's actually not the point at the end of the day.
I've never been one who agonizes over my work.
It's important, that spirit of youth, and when you're 16 that can get you kickstarted.
So, no, I'm not trying to crack into Hollywood, although I'll make films there if they're good scripts.
Mainly I was able to perform with music - I played the French horn, I would sing, and I was a drummer in the pipe band. So I think it was a way to show off.
I've played in pipe bands in Scotland, and I've always played guitars and drums and stuff.
If you want to produce really horrible, obnoxious kids, say yes to them all the time.
Everything you do on set is directly related to your imagination when you read the script for the first time.
I love skiing, scuba diving and hang-gliding.
I find politicians so desperately boring. I don't trust them and don't believe in them.
Sometimes I feel like doing smaller budget stuff. When I did 'Young Adam', for instance, I'd come out of 'Black Hawk Down' and 'The Island', and I really wanted to be on a small film set. I wanted to be on something intimate and small again, and then 'Young Adam' cropped up in a pile of scripts I was sent.
The film I like the best is always the one I'm working on now or next.
I don't pay much attention to career or what other people think. I've always been quite arrogant.
I don't think having separate bathrooms is a key to a successful marriage, if you love one another.
For all of the hurtling towards climate change, there's also a lot more understanding of it than there was when we were kids. They don't call environmentalists tree huggers any more, so there's hope!
You can be playing a line some way and the director wants you to change that, or you can disagree. But I always think that the creative conversation between director and actor is what leads to good work.
Success is tricky to deal with, both professionally and in your personal life.
I was born in '71, so I remember bits of glam rock on 'Top of the Pops' toward the late '70s, but I had no idea what kind of world it was. I didn't like the music, either.
I left it for seven years before going back on stage. I know now not to leave it so long.
Ultimately, you have to not worry about people thinking you should have played him differently. You're the one playing the part so it has to be yours.
Once you've agreed the script, you must be willing to go as far as it needs to go on set.
It's not my job to try and alter the director's style - he's in charge, and I'll always give him my trust.
