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.

If I wasn't an actor I'd be a teacher a history teacher. After all teaching is very much like performing. A teacher is an actor in a way. It takes a great deal to get and hold a class.

The fact of the matter is that when there are feelings involved and you like someone it doesn't matter if you're an actor a teacher a doctor a lawyer a receptionist - you can't really help it when you have feelings for someone.

It was difficult being a teacher and out of the closet in the '50s. By the time I retired the English department was proud of having a gay poet of a certain minor fame. It was a very satisfactory change!

Ask everyone whether they're an actor or a doctor or a teacher or whatever is entitled to his or her opinion. But unfortunately because actors are in the public eye whether we want it or not sometimes our opinions carry more weight or influence than they deserve.

I was a writer. I just wasn't a very good one. I was lucky enough to have a playwriting teacher who told me that I'd be a better actor than I would a playwright.

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner my acting teacher told us. When you create a character it's like making a chair except instead of making someting out of wood you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

Actors who are lovers in real life are often incapable if playing the part of lovers to an audience. It is equally true that sympathy between actors who are not lovers may create a temporary emotion that is perfectly sincere.

I'd rather a young black actor read about success as opposed to how tough it was. I get these roles because I can act and that's it. Hopefully that's it.

Indeed I regard the enduring support which I have received over the years from all sections of the community in Ballymena as being more than sufficient recognition for any success which I may have achieved as an actor.