Watching people just look out for themselves, I think, is extremely interesting. It goes right back to something like 'The Beggar's Opera' - the unde….

I love acting. It's the one job I know of where you can go in, go through complete catharsis - emotionally, physically sometimes and mentally - and a….

I was on the set of 'Braveheart' and my mate says to me, 'Do you think this film will be any good?' And I really meant this, too, I told him 'Let me ….

Just in relation to women, it's not that huge an imaginative leap to see the connection between the Taliban and the Catholic Church..

In the acting game, you spend a long time fighting against what the director perceives you to be. And half the time the directors don't know..

Every film I've ever worked on, and that includes 'Braveheart' and 'Trainspotting,' I've always witnessed a director having a breakdown. Every direct….

I wanted to dismantle the bollocks that there's a military structure to a gang, with a leader, second leader, the good looking one, first babe, secon….

Sometimes you have to confront your demons and sometimes even let them loose to genuinely find a place where you can gain some understanding..

Life is much weirder than fiction; nothing's more absurd..

It takes a very strong brain to resist the absolutes, the myths that the media and the politicians peddle - the idea that if you are too kind, where ….

There's no such thing as an actor giving positive criticism to a director. The minute you say 'Don't you think it would look nicer', that director's ….

Filmmaking is something I have to do. It's not something I particularly want to do..

There's a part of bohemia I love. The lack of prejudice, the lack of aggression, I love the lack, for the most part, of competitiveness. It's more pe….

I hate it when something is set in 1967 and every piece of furniture was made in 1967. No! If it's set in 1967, people have furniture given to them b….

The Vatican has tried to condemn 'The Magdalene Sisters' as a pack of lies and that I've made it all up - I wish I was that good a dramatist - and in….

Part of the reason why movie bosses are so obsessed with crime movies is because they know that world and the criminals. And that's what they are - t….

In bringing the subject of religious oppression to a wider audience, I didn't just want to kick the Catholic Church but to poke a finger in the throa….

If I'm at home on my own and the writing isn't going well, I clean my house. And there have been times in the past few years when my house has looked….

Truth is I don't think God on a daily basis. I think politics, science..

A script is utterly useless in and of itself; it's only of any worth the minute your actors, your designers, your directors come into being..

I find the world more absurd now than I did when I was a kid..