Words matter. These are the best Ian McShane Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
People tweet before they think, and it becomes obsessive.
The bad boy: always more fun.
There’s only two kinds of actors – good ones and bad ones… and lucky ones and unlucky ones.
Bosses will tell you they are looking for something different but they’re not, actually.
Every actor has to love and loathe the character he plays.
I don’t think that acting is as youth-obsessed as the general culture. In acting, as you get older, you get better, and the parts you get improve, too. But that’s only true for a man, not a woman.
My dad was a football player – a soccer player – for Manchester United, and I loved playing football, but I also happened to be the guy in class who was pretty good at sight reading. My teacher gave me scripts, and I was very comfortable.
When you’re in your early 20s, you go ahead and do everything. And it’s very hard to judge yourself.
Robert Fisk is my hero. In America, they think he’s a terrorist.
Whenever there was a pause on the ‘Hercules’ set, everybody whipped their Blackberries out of their skirts – ‘Are you texting the King of Thrace to tell them we’re on our way?’
I don’t believe in the death penalty, but I understand personal vengeance.
If ‘Deadwood’ had gone on another two years, I wouldn’t have got as many movies made.
Do you follow American politics? They hate Obama. Hate him. He’s a black man. That’s what it is: it’s racist. This guy is no bleeding-heart liberal. He’s a centrist.
When you’re doing a medieval show like ‘Pillars,’ it starts off a bit like a school play. You’re all in funny costumes; you’ve had your coffee, and you say, ‘Good morning’. Then you go on set and, if you’ve got good actors and directors, it takes on a life of its own.
I enjoy every role I do.
I had a bit of a male menopause. It started at the age of 18 and continued until I was 45.
I come from the liberal side of thinking: Better one guilty man should walk free than one innocent man found guilty.
‘Lovejoy’ has a special place in my heart because it was through my efforts that the series first came to the screen.
I think the reason ‘Sexy Beast’ was so good was it wasn’t just another run-of-the-mill gangster film; it was a love story.
What ‘Deadwood’ did was to talk about how capitalism started, how civilised society came in, and how that brought its own problems.
Blackbeard is probably the most infamous pirate who ever lived. He’s one of those characters for which most of your work is done before you start.
As long as the cheques carry on coming in, and I’m enjoying my work, I shall continue acting.
Acting’s boring.
I had a teacher at school who said, ‘We are going to do a play next year, and you’re in it.’ He said, ‘You should try out for the Royal Academy as an actor.’ I did and got in. I was 17. My mum wasn’t too happy, but it worked out OK.
I’m from the disco era where everybody thought they were John Travolta… What song is going to get me on the dance floor? Anything from ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ and you’re up there like a demon.
I never wanted a life of having a nice house, driving around, settling down.
I’m a child of the Sixties.
What’s great about acting is you can let all your wackiness hang out while you work.
My second marriage was to a girl I met in Manchester, kept a long-distance relationship going for two years, then we got married… disaster.
Seventy years old! How did that happen? I was part of the generation that wasn’t going to die.
Acting is great therapy – you get to do things you’d normally get arrested for.
I don’t remember my first two marriages… the details are very sketchy.
I mean, I’m an actor. I do what comes along.
