There's a hysterical, tired sense of humor that comes after working 14 hours a day, six days a week. I like those things because they take the pressure off the constant stress

To people outside, they think, Gee, that's great. You get to go here and there. The other side of that is our expression, This is location, not vacation

I like playing flawed characters, people who aren't perfect.

I had already done a lot of research for Rough Riders, keeping notebooks and old photographs. Some of the books were antiques for that time period, with the covers falling off.

While I was doing these plays in the beginning, I wasn't getting paid. I thought of it more as a hobby. Then I realized how seriously a lot of these people took what they were doing

I didn't know how to go about preparing for the part of someone who can't remember who he is. The frustration angle is written in, but there's also this incredible passive state

In this industry, the new owners prefer to kill anything they weren't responsible for.

You can't think that you're playing a villain, or you'll end up with a cartoon. You have to think about him as a person and a hero.

I wrote a script. I actually enjoyed writing it more than acting. It's about the Irish rebellion of 1920, which is a fascinating period and place for me

I have family obligations and all that stuff. I get my kids six weeks in the summer, which is a real intense period of time. I'm with them every minute of the day

I feel more comfortable doing films with groups of guys. It's a lot easier for me. There's a difference with women: you can't take them to dinner every night and go crazy

Sooner or later on this journey, every traveller faces the same question: Are you a human intending to be a god, or a god pretending to be human?

Anger is the wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

I don't hold with the notion that only bad books make good movies.

I'm a hopeless 19th-century romantic.

It's my world, I demand my respect. Give me your girl or get slapped in your neck.

Do not reject anything because it is new or strange, and do not sneer nor jeer at what comes from the Lord, for if we do, we endanger our salvation.

It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.

I am certain that to preach the wrath of God with a hard heart, a cold lip, a tearless eye, and an unfeeling spirit is to harden men, not benefit them.

The past cannot be allowed to repeat itself.