Acting Touches Nerves You Have

So You Can't Judge The Character You're Playing Ever.

It's A Nightmare To Sit And Watch A Film That I'm In. There's A Horrible Inescapability To It.

I Have Every Sympathy For Writers. It's A Mystery To Me What They Do. I Can Edit. I Can Cross Out And Say, 'i'm Not Saying That' Or, 'how About We Move This To Here? Wouldn't That Make That Bit Of The Story Better?' But Where Any Of It Comes From Is Beyond Me. I Will Never Write A Play Or A Novel.

The First Time That I Came To New York To Work Properly Was The Mid-'80s, But I Was Doing Eight Shows A Week. You Have No Life. Going To A Punk Rock Club - Or Whatever The Music Was At That Time - Would Not Have Been On My Agenda.

Certainly As Actors, And Maybe As Directors, You've Got To Hang On To Something Childlike. You've Got To Know What Play Is. I Haven't Worked With Mike Leigh, But I Know Him Very Well And There's Something Open In His Eyes About What's In Front Of Him. And The Same Is True Of Alfonso In A Mexican, Mad Way. There's An Enthusiastic Response To Something. Neil Jordan, The Same, When He Gets Excited . You Just Want To Know There's A Human Being In There.