Top 120 Quotes & Sayings by James Nesbitt - Page 2

I love nothing more than going to eat by myself with a newspaper.

The best way of enjoying your money is to spend it on other people. I don't need much.

My wife would say I'm more Hyde than Jekyll!

When I did the film 'Hear My Voice' a few years ago, I disappeared fully up my own backside for a while. Because I thought my career was taking off, I became a bit of an egomaniac and a pain in the neck. I thought I was God's gift to mankind and the greatest Irishman since George Best.

When I turned 40, subconsciously, life was a blank sheet. Before, it was disjointed, and I was very displaced and quite mad, but it was a brilliant time. Everyone thinks I must have been unhappy.

There's no such thing as unwanted attention for an actor.

Improvising political dialogue is not easy.

Ever since I left Northern Ireland, I've always been pretty comfortable on my own, which contradicts a lot of people's perceptions of me.

I'm no pin-up.

As I flew back from New Zealand to bury my mother, it occurred to me that no matter how harrowing her loss was and how keenly it will always be felt, there was, nevertheless, a sense of relief that my father, sisters and I could say a final goodbye after the longest goodbye and relief that my mum had finally been released.

I loved my time growing up in Northern Ireland doing youth drama, that is where it all began for me.

Before I read the 'Bloody Sunday' script, I have to admit I hadn't thought about it that much. There was probably even part of me which assumed there was no smoke without fire. That the Catholics who were shot must have done something to provoke such a response from the army. I was extremely ignorant of the whole situation.

I've got a history in my life of difficult times.

Some actors can distance themselves from the parts they play, but I fall into the category who use bits of themselves.

As fabulous as technology is, it can also make us very anxious.

Kids at a certain age don't necessarily want to be dragged to the other side of the world.

'Spoilt' is a euphemism for 'loved.'

My mother certainly doesn't think I'm charming!

That thing of briefly losing sight of a child happened to me when the kids were younger, and you can't see them in the supermarket or wherever. It's a terrible, terrible moment... the most unimaginable horror.

Something about theatre perhaps scared me.

Unification is less important than the fact Ireland is now conflict-free.

I've always been a family man and count myself as one of those who are lucky to have the comfort of a family.

I get an awful lot of people coming up and saying they went to school with me. There must have been 80,000 pupils at that school!

I'm not very good at standard English.

While I've never 'phoned in' a performance, I think I have given some performances where I could have been a bit braver.

All my adult life, there was the Troubles. That was the backdrop of my life.

Love your parents, but don't have them as your mates.

I've never felt that acting was my vocation - never had that tortured thing. I love acting, but it doesn't feed my soul.

Northern Ireland has treated me well, you know?

A lot of people of my Ulster Protestant background would have been very suspicious of the notion of a film about Bloody Sunday. Our fear would have been that it would be terribly anti-Britain and anti-soldiers: a piece of nationalist propaganda.

What I discovered all over Ireland is that people living simple lives by the sea or in the remote countryside seem a lot calmer than city folk with their iPads and their Android phones.

My preference is for good writing. It doesn't matter if it's for film or TV. Whatever. It starts with the writing. Even though I've had problems with writers, it doesn't matter how great of an actor you are. If the writing is bad, you're going to struggle.

When you see a tumour in the brain, it's an ugly looking thing. It's kind of black, grisly and messy. Or it can be white. To see it taken away is just amazing.

Brain surgeons are dealing with the very last thread of life, and they have to be very confident, but I think they tend to remember their failures rather than their successes, and that must be very hard. Who do you share that failure with? That's why their personal lives are often disastrous.

Supporting drama for young people is close to my heart.

The whole process of making 'Bloody Sunday' was difficult but extraordinary.

People don't watch TV only to relate to stuff. They also watch to find out about a world they can't relate to.

When you're brought up in a Unionist culture, you can't help but feel Unionist.

I actually started out on the stage as a singer.

I went to India with UNICEF in connection with Manchester United to raise money for children's education.

Acting was a godsend. I found myself because I loved acting.

We have to get behind the scientists and push for a dementia breakthrough. It could be that we fear dementia out of a sense of hopelessness, but there is hope, and it rests in the hands of our scientists.

I am in the public eye, and I accept that my actions may be open to question.

I'm an actor, learning lines and saying them in the right order.

Tumours can come out of nowhere.

Who am I to pass judgment? Judgment has been passed on me, but I adhere to, 'Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.'

I'm Ulster Presbyterian. We understand the need to work hard from an early age.

The reality of life in Northern Ireland is that if you were Protestant, you learned British history, and if you were Catholic, you learned Irish history in school.

My agent Sue realised after 'Cold Feet' that I could have spent the rest of my life doing similar roles. So she was instrumental in moving me away from that.

I think teaching should be a vocation, and they should be paid more for it.

I want to beat up Michael Fassbender in a movie. I was with him at the beginning of his career when he did an episode of 'Murphy's Law.' He's a proper superstar and enormously talented, but I want to do a scene where I properly duff him up.

Perhaps our imagination needs crime stories to fulfill some craving we have, as a way to assuage a darkness in ourselves.

If you are a Northern Irish actor, maybe subconsciously more than consciously, you do have an instinctive responsibility at some point to tackle the recent history of where we have come from. It's not only a responsibility, but a privilege.

Although surgeons know how to deal with bits of the brain, they don't really know how it works.

It's easy to get carried away with yourself.

Acting is something you didn't do in Ireland.

You can get a bit world-weary in this job, and 'The Passion' reminded me of what a fantastic job acting is and how lucky I am to be doing it.

Martin Freeman as [Bilbo] is just a revelation.

Spoilt is a euphemism for loved.

Like the character I played in Jekyll, we all have different masks we put on for different occasions. As much as we all want to lead decent lives, we're also attracted by the idea that something dark may lurk within us.