Liam Neeson Quotes
Actor
I'm a big believer in acts of kindness, no matter how small.
Yeah, well, I finally stopped smoking for good.
It's an extraordinary thing, this tiny little province of Northern Ireland, where carnage happened. And I was part of it. I grew up in it.
For all of nature's wonder and beauty, it is also hostile and unpredictable.
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.
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.
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.
I try to stay fit. I try and do something every day but I don't jog. My body hates jogging.
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.
I love doing my own stunts but it's hard.
In real life, wolves will do anything to avoid contact with mankind.
For every successful actor or actress, there are countless numbers who don't make it. The name of the game is rejection. You go to an audition and you're told you're too tall or you're too Irish or your nose is not quite right. You're rejected for your education, you're rejected for this or that and it's really tough.
I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday.
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?
Acting is invigorating. But I don't analyse it too much. It's like a dog smelling where it's going to do its toilet in the morning.
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.
I do shadow boxing and use a heavy bag, but I don't spar with anyone.
Looking out for your children is an ongoing process throughout your life.
I was very slow in maths, geometry I actually enjoyed.
It's an ongoing joy being a dad.
I have often found that no matter where I meet people in the world, there is a path that leads back to Queen's.
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.'
Before 'Schindler's List,' I wouldn't have believed movies had a lot of power for social change.
I do believe at the end of the night when you're with your family, the character gets hung up on the door like a coat, and is there to be taken on the next morning.
Kinsey's quest was really for us all to be tolerant and accepting of each other.
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.
To be honest, I'm scared to death of rollercoaster rides.
There seems to be more opportunities for old guys like me to do a little fighting and running because the lead characters also require a bit of depth and maturity and gravitas that one is likely to acquire doing drama all those years.
You think your life is going one way and then suddenly, you're on another track.
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.
Hollywood is throwing action movies at me.
Yes, I'm Catholic; I'm proud of it. But I had lots of Protestant friends.
The Irish Catholic side was married to the life of an actor and I found out acting could be a form of prayer.
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.
If I get rejected for a part, I pick myself up and say, 'OK, not today, maybe tomorrow I'll get this other part or something.'
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.
I don't know if I'm a strict parent or a pushover.
America has been very, very good to me.
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 was on the jury duty on the Deauville Film Festival, a few years ago.
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.
But let's just say, I'm Irish. I grew up in the 1950s. Religion had a very tight iron fist.
I'm so touched that complete strangers will send me a script asking me to be in their film. That still amazes me - and sometimes for a lot of money too.
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.
I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism.
Rihanna is a very talented person. One of those people who are able to do whatever they want with great results.
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.
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.
Why would anyone ever tell anything personal to a journalist?
I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn't understand what being an actor meant anymore.
It's interesting, the more successful you become the more people want to give you stuff for nothing.
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.
I don't do my own stunts, but I do my own fighting. I don't consider fighting to be a stunt.
I always wanted to be a cowboy, and Jedi Knights are basically cowboys in space, right?
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.
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.
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.
Getting married and settling down isn't the most important thing in my life.
I think there must be some other life forms, even if they're microscopic.
I'd like to play Ian Paisley, actually. I'd need building up, though he's very frail now.
I get fed up with plots that are driven by someone constantly getting information on a computer.
I have to make it my job to be careful with my family.
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.
I have no desire to play King Lear or Hamlet. I never had a grand ambition. I just followed my nose.
The putting on of vestments and lighting candles, it's a wonderful ritual that never changes from one Mass to another.
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.
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.
Queen's University flies the flag for the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.
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?
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.
Indeed I regard the enduring support which I have received over the years from all sections of the community in Ballymena as being more than sufficient recognition for any success which I may have achieved as an actor.
I'm still a proud Irishman, of course, but I've become an American citizen. I'm very, very proud of that.
I think I'm past my due date. I just feel it.
I keep fit as much as I can.
I try to be a hard boiled sometimes. My kids see right through it. I'm acting. It's always, 'When I say you'll be back at 11, that means 11, not 11.15. Do you hear me!?' Then, 'Yeah, Dad.'
I have friends who have daughters and there's times I think I'm glad I have boys instead of girls.
I think I survived by running away some. Running away to work.
It is fun to explore these kick-butt characters.
It's easy enough to plan jobs, to plan a lot of work.
I came to water late. I learned to swim at the age of 20.
It's best to keep acting real.
I loved school.
As you know, Hollywood loves to pigeonhole all the actors and actresses, and suddenly I got 're-pigeonholed' as an action actor.
It's funny, but you get to a time in your life when you think you have all the friends you will ever have.
I gravitate toward women.
I've made many films and only a few times I've played real people.
I don't think I'm funny.
I think if you're the son or daughter of successful actors and actresses, it's a double pressure. More is expected of you.
I'm trying to be a comedian, you know?
I can always act.
I'm very much a homebody.
I've never been in a street fight.
I love working with children.
When I see great boxers, it's like reading a wonderful poem.
I certainly notice the vitality in Belfast, which wasn't there in the Seventies. There was a war going on then. Now there are cranes everywhere. There really is a sense of renewal and hope.
You can't act being a boxer. It's like being on stage.