John Hurt Quotes
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Don't forget there are two sides to performing. Finding the truth, but you also have to be transparent enough for the audience to see it. How many times have you seen a performance and thought: 'Well, it seems to be meaning a great deal to you but it ain't coming across to me?' It is to be shared.
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The clergy is in the same business as actors, just a different department.
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There are situations where you are left robbed of all quality of life, and I believe it is entirely up to you how you want to deal with that. You can follow the dictates of religion if that is what you believe in, or you can take a personal decision.
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I knew I didn't want to pursue an academic career at all, which, of course, my father would have loved me to have done. I didn't want to go to university. The only other thing I could do was paint, and so I went to art school because they couldn't conceive of how one would be an actor.
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Ultimately, the film industry has always pushed out its biggies, and I don't have a problem with that. I just wish that we'd spend more time nurturing the smaller ones.
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I gave up religious thinking a long time ago and am really just an agnostic now.
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I love the uilleann pipes and listen to Ronan Browne who's an uilleann piper.
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I'm essentially the result of other people's imagination. And that's fine. Because of other people's imagination, I've played parts I would never have thought I could do. Still, I've never had a hankering or an ambition for any particular role.
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I'm somewhat old-fashioned, and I still talk about playing a part. I don't talk about my work - 'I've seen some of your work' - there's not much work in it, is there?
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I think fame makes people a bit nervous.
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Early on, I didn't intend to have children. I thought it was too difficult a world for them. But then it happened, and I am thrilled to have them now.
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Half the stuff I have done which has been successful would never have been made if it had been shown to focus groups.
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If I'm doing a play, 30 to 40 percent of the people that come to the stage door have pictures of 'Alien' for me to autograph. And usually, the photos are pretty gory ones.
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Human beings are very good at adapting to what happens.
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I remember once when I told Lindsay Anderson at a party that acting was just a sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians he almost had a fit.
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I can't say that I wouldn't prefer to make small films, basically because I think they are probably more interesting in terms of the material. But every now and again, it's quite good to do a big one.
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As Beckett said, it's not enough to die, one has to be forgotten as well.
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One thing that is likely to make you lose touch is if you keep in touch with the past too much.
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I have lots of favourite memories but I can't say that I have a favourite film.
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There's an awful lot of hanging around when you're doing science fiction. Going down and waiting for them to set up, being told to go back to your dressing room while they change the track and the lighting and so on.
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I like entertaining. I adore it. I feel I'm in the right place. Without question.
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I've been incredibly lucky with the directors I've worked with.
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Things come in a quieter way to me. It's not laziness, and it's not diffidence. I just know how far you have to bend for work. That's important for me.
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'The Naked Civil Servant' was as important for me as 'Easy Rider' was for Jack Nicholson. No question.