Brian Dennehy

“You know, you get to a certain age, 45, 50, I don't know when it happens, I said, 'Jesus, all I got is a certain amount of time. Maybe I should think about using it a little better.'”

“The older I get, the more interesting the part has to be. Bobby Knight is extremely interesting.”

“At 13, I was a big, totally uncoordinated, hopeless football player. I responded to somebody else's rules, and I stayed just good enough to get a scholarship to Columbia, which was looking for scholar-athletes.”

“As the stars make more and more money - one person gets $12 million, $14 million, $15 million, $20 million - everyone else is expected to work for peanuts. And that includes some extraordinary actors who are, today, working for peanuts because the production companies have decided they don't need to pay these people, and they don't.”

“When you think about it, what's the difference between Bobby Knight and Vince Lombardi? Why is one guy a god, and the other guy is regarded as a crazy man?”

“I come from an Irish Catholic family, and hell-raising is part of the DNA.”

“My father had a good sense of humour about a lot of things, including life, which I think I inherited.”

“What really matters is that you do what you think is right, what you believe in, and you surround yourself with the people you care about in this world. That's what counts in this life.”

“From 1965 to 1974, I served the best possible apprenticeship for an actor. I learned firsthand how a truck driver lives, what a bartender does, how a salesman thinks. I had to make a life inside those jobs, not just pretend.”