I was an OK boxer, I wasn't great, I was OK, but I loved the discipline of getting together every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, usually Saturday afternoons too, with a whole bunch of mates and training, very, very hard for about two-and-half hours.
— Liam Neeson
The Irish Catholic side was married to the life of an actor and I found out acting could be a form of prayer.
I get fed up with plots that are driven by someone constantly getting information on a computer.
I never thought about becoming a professional singer, but I am in touch with Bono about releasing a musical movie. It will be about an Irish band during the '70s who are looking for fortune in Las Vegas. I should play the singer of the band but I don't want to sing in front of anybody.
I try to stay fit. I try and do something every day but I don't jog. My body hates jogging.
A sex symbol? A symbol of sex? I don't think that I am a sex symbol, although it's very flattering. I'm 59, now, so I think I'm possibly past my sell-by date. I think I am.
I was reared a Catholic but I think every day we ask ourselves, not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What's it all about?
Well, I think I've made 44 films and only like four times I've played real characters I'm just drawn to people who have a pioneer spirit, this extraordinary energy and commitment to their cause.
Well I think people think sex is controversial. Not always, but certainly it's something to be discussed.
Kinsey's quest was really for us all to be tolerant and accepting of each other.
In bed at night, I could be reading some book, and I'll come across a sentence that's totally unrelated to some scene I did years ago. But I'll play the scene back in my mind and think, I did that wrong - I should've opened the door more slowly.
I thought, well of course, Kinsey absolutely adored teaching. He was a wonderful teacher. So these kids really inspired me. So that was a clue I hung onto. He loved young people, he absolutely loved them. And he loved teaching them and trying to help them.
I always wanted to be a cowboy, and Jedi Knights are basically cowboys in space, right?
But, you know, there's still an argument, there's still ten states that outlaw premarital sex, and many more states where adultery is still outlawed and a crime.
But I was very, very lucky, and it was a wake up call as far as motorbikes are concerned. I never flirted with death on the bike, but now I'm totally convinced they're death machines.
And as the hour approached for the execution, in his own mind, Collins became both the executioner and the victim. He would pace up and down, transformed in almost a kind of exorcism when he knew he was responsible for taking someone's life.
Some mornings you wake up and think, gee I look handsome today. Other days I think, what am I doing in the movies? I wanna go back to Ireland and drive a forklift.
The putting on of vestments and lighting candles, it's a wonderful ritual that never changes from one Mass to another.
I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn't understand what being an actor meant anymore.
Why would anyone ever tell anything personal to a journalist?
Rihanna is a very talented person. One of those people who are able to do whatever they want with great results.
I've had an unbelievable life. I've been very lucky. You do create your own luck too, you know? I never forget where I'm from. Whenever I pass a building site or see somebody digging a ditch, I always think, 'That's real work.'
Hollywood is throwing action movies at me.
Yes, I'm Catholic; I'm proud of it. But I had lots of Protestant friends.
Well, from an acting point of view, I bear no relation, I don't look like Alfred Kinsey at all, but I thought somewhere in my artist's soul, my actor's soul, I could capture something of the spirit of the man.
Sitting down to eat in our house is about sharing, you know, talking about the day you've had, be it in school or work or whatever, so that's very important to us.
It's interesting, the more successful you become the more people want to give you stuff for nothing.
I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday.
I love working with children and this young boy, Thomas Sangster, is quite a remarkable young actor. He raises your game, you know. He certainly raised mine.
Getting married and settling down isn't the most important thing in my life.
But, you know, sex is controversial, it just is and it always will be.
At the Sex Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, they were a phenomenal help, too. We went out there for a few days, and they gave us access to materials. And the biographies, there are four or five, ranging from very poor to excellent.
Acting with creatures that aren't there is kind like acting with an actor who refuses to come out of his trailer. You still have to go on and do the scene.
In Los Angeles, it's like they jog for two hours a day and then they think they're morally right. That's when you want to choke people, you know?
I offer my performance as prayer for someone I've worked with as an actor or someone who has died. The image that comes into my head as I walk to the stage, I offer that performance up for that person.
I have no desire to play King Lear or Hamlet. I never had a grand ambition. I just followed my nose.
I will never become a director or a movie producer. I was always looking at picture directing because I didn't know what to do! You can't be a movie director without real preparation.
I'm Irish, so I'm used to odd stews. I can take it. Just throw a lot of carrots and onions in there and I'll call it dinner.
I don't know if I'm a strict parent or a pushover.
I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism.
Yeah, well, I finally stopped smoking for good.
Well I was on the jury duty on the Deauville Film Festival, a few years ago.
People ask me if I ever feel outside the Hollywood loop, and I never do, because both of us do a lot of theatre, so it's great for New York and it's also half-way between Europe and the west coast, so it's the best of both worlds.
It's extraordinary to look into a baby's face and see a piece of your flesh and your spirit. It makes you realize you are a part of the human race.
I'd like to play Ian Paisley, actually. I'd need building up, though he's very frail now.
I did, although I didn't read from page 1 to page 187 but I read chunks of it. I did a little bit of science when I was in the university so I was able to understand the graphs and pie charts and stuff like that. It was extremely dry.
Every cliche about kids is true; they grow up so quickly, you blink and they're gone, and you have to spend the time with them now. But that's a joy.
But let's just say, I'm Irish. I grew up in the 1950s. Religion had a very tight iron fist.
And the Institute sent me a little film footage of Kinsey himself preparing to do an interview for television to talk about his work, so that was quite valuable for me.
Well, I think they're all basically the same story. Every culture in the world has them. When you strip it down and analyze it, it's the young man or girl who goes through a trial or ordeal and hits a very low ebb but manages to get guidance from a Merlin type figure.
