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

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.

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.

I want to do things so wild with you that I don't know how to say them.

We are never short of craziness

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.

I actually am a phobic twitchy sort of nervous guy.

Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.

Everybody is born good and everybody has got the same size soul. We're here to connect with that.

When life's flight is over, and we unload our cargo at the other end, the fellow who got rid of unnecessary weight will have the most valuable cargo to present the Lord.

I really think [William] Burroughs was onto something here, when he said, "Dreams are a biologic necessity and your lifeline into space."

We serve a God that does His greatest works when it becomes impossible for us.

My history defines who I am.