David Thewlis Quotes

I was approached to do something for seven years, and it was a quality project. I did seriously think about it, but I didn't want to be away for six months of the year. I've never done the L.A. thing where you go and have loads of meetings; I can't say to my wife, 'I'm going to wait by a pool for six months.'

I don't want to miss out on my grandchildren and my daughter, and doing Broadway would do just that.

What's great about TV, and what I love about being on 'Parenthood,' is you have this family. I'm now going on four years of working with the same 100 people, and that helps you feel like your life has more roots. It's more conducive to having a family, and you're staying in town. So that part is amazing.

I would have hated to been locked into music for the last 20 years and not been able to have a family.

I've been offered a couple of shows that have been very successful, but they weren't right for me. It has to be something I could be excited about for a long time.

Some scripts you read and say, 'I've just got to do this' and you find a way of making it work. Some things you turn down because of the impact on family.

I really enjoy doing sitcom television. It allows me to stay in Los Angeles and spend more time with my husband and kids.

I had the option of building a career in the U.S. Many of my friends who went at the time did not come back, but for me, building the family business and being with family was worth it. I became a general manager within four months, as I used my education to improve productivity and output.

There's been no real reason to move to LA. The stuff I've done for America has been done in Europe anyway. We made a decision early on that we'd find our base and not shake the children's world as much as mine.

I'd like to find great roles close to home and work on great projects while staying near my family. My family's the most important thing to me right now.

I can't move back to England. My home is in France now. I'd love to but I can't. My family's all there now.

As a relatively young woman - I'm 33 - I hope to one day have a family and already have commitments. If and when I'm elected as an MP, I would face a choice: take my family with me to London each week or be apart for four, maybe five, nights a week.

When I retired, I really wanted to spend time with my family and kids. Coaching would have prevented that due to the commitment of the job and travel that goes with it, too.

I haven't been an actor who's been able to pick and choose roles, and being a family man, it's been about putting food on the table.

There's a lot of reasons I had to move on. Family's definitely a big part of it. And the longevity of my career - I played for 15 years, and I was just tired of the whole international scene. It's quite busy. Very stressful.

I am happy that I got an international offer by a French director but I won't be able to take part in his film as he wanted me exclusively for two years. As I am getting many offers from Bollywood and the television industry, I won't be able to do it.

I came to Turin above all for my family, because at Manchester, they had inserted a clause in our agreement which changed the situation considerably. It really annoyed me.

I was going to be the head wrangler at a ranch in Wyoming, and the reason I didn't take the job is because I couldn't have my family there - the family had to stay in town. I just wasn't willing to do that.

Point-blank, I don't want to raise a family in baseball. Maybe I just want to be normal.

One of the reasons I never went into pro football was because I wanted my kids to grow up around an academic environment. And that's exactly what we did.

I only want to do good projects. I want to make good decisions. If it's just a dumb movie, then no, I'd rather stay in school. But if it's a movie worth telling and that I think I would really benefit from, then I would like to do it. And that's one of the reasons I still live in Colorado. I love being with my family and going to school, and then when I come out to L.A., that is the time to be in the movies. People ask me the questions, I do the promotion work, then I get to go back home and live my life.

When you're shooting a movie you are away from home most of the time. It's an amazing thing that we get to do what we get to do, but you definitely are away from the family more than you'd like to be.

We are on the road 250-280 days a year at least, and it's something that, if I have a wife and kids at home, I don't know if I could do it.

When I'm on a movie, I'm unavailable every day for a year and a half. You can't do that with a little baby. Somebody might be able to do it, but not me.

Childcare is a huge issue for young women whose work may require them to leave their families for weeks at a time.