Liam Neeson Quotes (36 Quotes)


    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.

    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.

    I'm absolutely crazy about fly fishing.

    I do tend to gravitate toward what guiding light we have. . . . If I read something that's got those ethics in it, then I go towards it. We live in such a corporate world where everyone is passing the buck, it seems to me. Therefore I like stories where the individual takes responsibility for BEING the individual, and not just for himself, but for his comrades, his society and ultimately for his country. Ultimately, we can all learn a lesson from that and not be browbeaten by the corporate world which is taking over.

    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.


    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.

    Yeah, well, I finally stopped smoking for good.

    But let's just say, I'm Irish. I grew up in the 1950s. Religion had a very tight iron fist.

    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.

    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.

    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.

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

    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.

    It was quite an intense time in Belfast in 1977 and I remember going to see it in the cinema. It was a very, very dicey area of Belfast. And the cinema was packed. In fact, I had never seen a cinema packed in my life before that -- to see this Episode I. Not Episode I at that time. It was Episode IV. And it was unique. We all got lost in this story for two hours and came back out into the harsh reality of life in Belfast.

    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.

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

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

    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.

    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.

    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?

    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.

    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.

    It's a simple story, yet with all the complexities of myth. The technology was so understated. I thought he (George Lucas) was an amazing director who had created this totally believable world.

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

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

    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.

    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.

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

    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.

    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.

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

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

    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.

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

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


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