Ian McShane

Every actor has to love and loathe the character he plays.

I don't remember my first two marriages... the details are very sketchy.

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.

You don't know where life takes you.

I never wanted a life of having a nice house, driving around, settling down.

If I'd had the choice when I was 14, and someone had said to me, 'You can either be a footballer or an actor,' I'd have said: 'Well, can't I be a footballing actor?'

I come from the liberal side of thinking: Better one guilty man should walk free than one innocent man found guilty.

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.

I'm a child of the Sixties.

You set paths for yourself, but as you get older, things change.

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 had a bit of a male menopause. It started at the age of 18 and continued until I was 45.