The media portrayal of women is always angled towards looking thinner and skinnier and... that's not good.
— Sean Bean
I can't imagine doing anything except acting.
I worked with John Hurt a couple of times and learned a lot from him.
I've been into lots of auditions, and I'm sure I've lost a lot of jobs through that because I'm pretty dreadful at reading.
I really got my money's worth from colleges in Sheffield and Rotherham because I kept dropping out, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at first, like a lot of teenagers.
Tolkien was quite a religious man, and so is George R.R. Martin. They kind of have this epic quality about them when they write the material.
I like Daniel Craig. I worked with him on 'Sharpe,' one of the very early ones, maybe the second one we did - 'Sharpe's Revenge?' A long, long time ago, and he was good in that then.
When I first started shooting 'Sharpe,' back in the early 1990s, I'd kiss my two elder daughters goodbye at the end of August - Evie wasn't even born then - and I wouldn't see them again until Christmas. That was tough. They were hard times.
I don't believe you just create a character out of thin air, there's always something of yourself you bring.
Jimmy McGovern - I love his writing, and I'm a big fan of him and Alan Clarke.
You can run out of energy if you take on a lot of stuff.
There are so many stories to be told, by so many good writers.
You don't necessarily equate me with humor!
I used to play a lot of villains. You have to break out of it, and I did.
Actors like Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, they totally immerse themselves in their parts.
I go to see my kids in school plays.
It took a while to adapt to life in London, but six months into my course at RADA, I felt very at home.
I don't do much on social media. I don't really want people knowing about my life.
The stigma of movie actors doing television is gone now.
I'm not bad at singing - at least in the shower.
My first professional role was in 'Romeo and Juliet,' and I played Tybalt, who was Romeo's enemy, in a small production of that in the U.K.
I had to go to Hollywood to recharge my career.
It's a good thing about George R.R. Martin: He's prepared to kill off the main guys. You don't get the feeling that the good guy is going to last forever, like James Bond.
I love creating things, especially out of metal. There's something truly satisfying about shaping a piece of metal and seeing the impurities peeling away as you weld it into your chosen design.
It's important to enjoy who you are and to appreciate things around you.
I think there's a great deal of information you can convey with looks or silence.
I saw 'The Exorcist' at the cinema when I was quite young, maybe 14. When I went back home, my mum and dad weren't in, so I had to wait for them on the main road. I were too scared to enter the house.
I always get nervous before a scene.
I'm very good at keeping a secret.
I think the amount of production value that was put into 'Game of Thrones' was incredible, and it's unlike anything I've seen on any other production, including 'The Lord of the Rings.'
Where I come from, all of us wanted to be footballers. We played all the time; that's all we did at school or wherever until it went dark and you couldn't see the ball.
I always like to do something different, something unusual, stray off the path a bit.
At art college, I started to do music and then painting and drawing - and that would have been my ideal life, to be an artist and be paid for it, to be able to create stuff. I realized it was difficult, but I don't know if I had the application for it.
I bought a Jaguar when I was 28. I'd always wanted one. I had it for years, then my friend had it, then my dad had it. It was a good workhorse.
I'm interested in why people talk like they do. Like Boston Irish. It's so laid back. Why is that?
I shared a dressing room with Pete Postlethwaite for 18 months, and he became a good friend. His discipline had an impact on me. You could have a laugh with him, but he was always on the ball when it came to work and very professional. Hopefully some of that rubbed off on me.
I don't like broad swords. They're not much fun. A broad sword is just a big chunk of steel, and there's not much finesse in it, not much skill, I don't think anyway.
Apprenticeships are the real nitty-gritty way of creating an efficient, skillful and vibrant workforce.
When I first finished 'Sharpe,' it was hard to get work because people only saw me as him.
I'd like to do a cowboy film. I suppose I've come close to it on occasion, but not really to a classic cowboy film.
All this focus on my private life is the most unappealing aspect of being an actor. I don't like it, but it goes with the territory, and I have to put up with it. I certainly don't set out to attract attention.
I am quite quiet: I don't feel as though I have to express myself with words too often. Maybe I should do more.
Obviously I'm delighted I'm a grandfather, but I guess it takes a little while to digest. You start thinking, 'Oh, I'm half-way over the natural life span. So this is the last bit, and I'd better enjoy it.'
When I was younger, I used to watch all the black-and-white 'Dracula's and 'Frankenstein's.
It is great filming in London. It's difficult, but it looks good. It has its own identity.
I did a film called 'Patriot Games' with Harrison Ford, and we actually shot three different versions of my death. And they settled on the third.
It's a good thing to be typecast, isn't it?
I wouldn't say I'm a Method actor, but I do try to focus very deeply on what character I'm playing, and everything else goes out the window. I forget about everything. I try to get everything else out of my head.
In theatre, once you've got the character and you've got things together, you can relax into it. Film has a different feel - you don't get that through line of not stopping. Theatre is like a snowball gathering momentum and getting bigger, whereas in film, it's a bit stop and start - but you do tend to adjust to that quite easily.
There's only so long you can play the silent type standing in the background. 'GoldenEye' was good for that. I was the villain: James Bond was doing all the heavy lifting. I liked that.
