I first decided to become an actor at school. A teacher gave us a play to do and that had a major impact. At first I wanted to work in the theatre but there was something about the ambience of film especially American films that always attracted me.

My mother wanted to be a teacher when she was young and my father didn't approve of it so she fought very hard to become one. And she did it. So when I said I wanted to become an actress my mother was very supportive. She always said to me 'There's no such thing as 'can't.'

If you become a teacher by your pupils you'll be taught.

I think my parents were happy that I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in history so they thought 'Well if acting doesn't work for him he can always become a history teacher or something.' Fortunately the acting worked out.

When you become a parent or a teacher you turn into a manager of this whole system. You become the person controlling the bubble of innocence around a child regulating it.

I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music if thought of as a language would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial.

If I'd stayed at college I would have become a teacher.

Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

Since this war began our sympathy has gone out to all the suffering people who have been dragged into it. Further hundreds of millions have become involved since I spoke at Limerick fortnight ago.