Liam Neeson's Quotes

I loved school.

I think I survived by running away some. Running away to work.

I think I'm past my due date. I just feel it.

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 think there must be some other life forms, even if they're microscopic.

I try to stay fit. I try and do something every day but I don't jog. My body hates jogging.

I was very slow in maths, geometry I actually enjoyed.

I'd like to play Ian Paisley, actually. I'd need building up, though he's very frail now.

I'm a big believer in acts of kindness, no matter how small.

I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday.

I'm still a proud Irishman, of course, but I've become an American citizen. I'm very, very proud of that.

I'm trying to be a comedian, you know?

I'm very much a homebody.

I've made many films and only a few times I've played real people.

I've never been in a street fight.

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?

It is fun to explore these kick-butt characters.

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.

It's best to keep acting real.

It's easy enough to plan jobs, to plan a lot of work.

It's funny, but you get to a time in your life when you think you have all the friends you will ever have.

It's interesting, the more successful you become the more people want to give you stuff for nothing.

Looking out for your children is an ongoing process throughout your life.

Queen's University flies the flag for the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Rihanna is a very talented person. One of those people who are able to do whatever they want with great results.

The putting on of vestments and lighting candles, it's a wonderful ritual that never changes from one Mass to another.

To be honest, I'm scared to death of rollercoaster rides.

Well I think people think sex is controversial. Not always, but certainly it's something to be discussed.

Well I was on the jury duty on the Deauville Film Festival, a few years ago.

Why would anyone ever tell anything personal to a journalist?

You can't act being a boxer. It's like being on stage.

You think your life is going one way and then suddenly, you're on another track.

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 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.

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.'

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.

A sex symbol? A symbol of sex? I don't think that I am a sex symbol, although it's very flattering. I'm 59, now, so I think I'm possibly past my sell-by date. I think I am.

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.

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.

At the Sex Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, they were a phenomenal help, too. We went out there for a few days, and they gave us access to materials. And the biographies, there are four or five, ranging from very poor to excellent.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

Yeah, well, I finally stopped smoking for good.

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.

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 always wanted to be a cowboy, and Jedi Knights are basically cowboys in space, right?

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.

Kinsey's quest was really for us all to be tolerant and accepting of each other.

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.

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.'

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.

I keep fit as much as I can.

Yes, I'm Catholic; I'm proud of it. But I had lots of Protestant friends.

Getting married and settling down isn't the most important thing in my life.

But, you know, sex is controversial, it just is and it always will be.

For all of nature's wonder and beauty, it is also hostile and unpredictable.

I don't know if I'm a strict parent or a pushover.

I get fed up with plots that are driven by someone constantly getting information on a computer.

I have friends who have daughters and there's times I think I'm glad I have boys instead of girls.

I have to make it my job to be careful with my family.

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'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism.

In real life, wolves will do anything to avoid contact with mankind.