James McAvoy Quotes

'The Chronicles of Narnia' books are great.

With writing fiction, I'm either not courageous enough or just not suited for telling truths in a more conventional way. As an actor, I inhabit those characters as I'm writing them.

When they first cast me, I was a pretty avid fan and vampire movies and Celtic mythology, so I was excited to get a chance to walk in Doyle's shoes and have fun with it.

I always play girls who are quite traumatised, or a plain girl, but I'm happy with that.

One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people's lives without having to pay the price.

That's why I'm an actress - escaping into a world.

I know Mama Rose is a great role and I love having a chance to do it.

I've been incredibly blessed with good roles the past few years, but none of them compares to the experience of playing Ellsworth on 'Deadwood.' There are times when I've had as much fun or had comparably great material, but as a body of work, playing Ellsworth tops anything else in my lifetime.

A little girl thought I was mean like my character on 'Zoey,' and I convinced her that 'Logan' is just a fake character and I am really a nice guy.

I'm an actor. The fact that I'm involved in Jigsaw, I don't approach Jigsaw any differently than I approached The Nordic in 'The Firm' or FBI Agent Stokes in 'Mississippi Burning.' It's the same deal. It's just that the effect is sometimes different. So I say, people ask me, 'How does it feel to be a horror icon?' I'm thrilled. It's great.

Acting is make-believe. I never believe I'm the character; I want you to believe.

I was a huge rereader, so I've read all the Chronicles of Narnia, at minimum, 13 times each. In reading that series, I realized that someone had written those books, and that was that person's job. And I thought, 'That is the job for me. That is the job I'm going to have when I grow up.'

The first author I remember being obsessed by, actually realizing 'I like the way he writes and I like the way he tells stories,' was C.S. Lewis and the 'Narnia' books.

I don't think they'd ever make a movie about Chuck Baker but I'd love to play Chuck Baker.

The interesting thing is, when you play a real-life character or someone based in a book, you always come up against people's preconceptions of what they have in their heads.

As a kid, you run around the house pretending to be a superhero, and now to be doing it as a job, I feel very lucky.

As you get older and you hopefully battle your own demons, you find other reasons why you want to be an actor. The people that I truly admire do this because they love telling stories and they love the make-believe of the moment and not so much the gratification afterwards.

Acting is my first love. There are still so many characters inside of me that are waiting to come out.

When you're acting, it's a fantasy already; maybe it's the costumes - I love it. It's so fun.

My favorite thing about acting is that I can play all kinds of different people. Frankly, I don't consider myself a very interesting person, so the characters I play are usually much more fun.

Playing Willie Loomis was really fun for me because it was something nice and different to embody. It was neat playing this drunken servant who was hypnotized by Johnny Depp.

I want to play the mean girl one day - or the mean gay!

My whole career has been fulfilling my childhood fantasies, playing characters that are larger than life, getting to play a knight, an elf, a prince, and a soldier.

I was a big 'Planet of The Apes' fan, so I was really excited about being in it. I had a really good time. I liked wearing all that stuff, and I liked playing the part.

It's fun to do accents; it's fun to do different periods - that's why you become an actor. Because it's fun to be a storyteller and play make-believe.