I'm on record saying that HBO is the best television company in the world, and I believe they are. I think they absolutely understand how to make television that is really, really vital and interesting and visceral, and all the things that television really should be.

James Purefoy

Categorized in : Think Best World Believe

When you're dealing with killing people and things that are upsetting, that can be a delicate place to occupy yourself for a day.

James Purefoy

occupy-yourself upset people

We start off wearing frilly shirts and britches and being good guys and the heroes. And then as time goes on, every English actor ends up playing bad guys. That's what we do.

James Purefoy

guy actors hero

One of the great things about being an actor is that you have a completely different challenge every few months.

James Purefoy

actors different challenges

I don't have much time for real violence at all. I think there are infinitely better ways of changing the world than using violence. Sitting round a table talking is a pretty good start.

James Purefoy

real world thinking

I think the James Bond thing has sailed. But of course I would want to be a Bond villain. They are great parts. I think it's highly unlikely, but one can always dream.

James Purefoy

dream want thinking

One of the things that makes this so topical right now is that I think there are an awful lot of American men - and women, but I'm a man, so that's what I can talk about - who feel the American dream has let them down.

James Purefoy

dream men thinking

Somebody doing something effortlessly is a lovely thing to watch.

James Purefoy

lovely-things lovely watches

I've never been "celeb-y" actor. You know, you don't catch me falling out of nightclubs at three o'clock in the morning. Well, very rarely! But I find it all a bit baffling, the whole celeb thing and I don't really get it.

James Purefoy

catch-me morning fall

Im not a big fan of patterns. I like the unexpected.

James Purefoy

patterns unexpected fans

Ring tones are just irritating, aren't they?

James Purefoy

irritating tone rings

You need to be disciplined and you need to try to occupy a zone of acting that is always quite scary because you don't think you're doing anything.

James Purefoy

scary trying thinking

Actors tend to get better with age. You start cutting away the useless stuff and achieving a point of effortlessness and simplicity, which is all you want to do, with any art at all.

James Purefoy

useless-stuff cutting art

What I went into the acting business for was to have a certain amount of chaos in my life. I don't know what I'm doing next. It's exciting. That's the way I like it.

James Purefoy

next acting way

Actors are their own worst enemies. They quite often will get in their own way, and I have to be encouraged, endlessly, not to get in my own way.

James Purefoy

worst-enemy actors way

I often think that drama helps people feel less lonely about things.

James Purefoy

lonely drama thinking

I think the older I get, the less I should be doing.

James Purefoy

should thinking

I really do want to just be able to sit in the corner of the pub with my friends... to just be an actor and still go to the supermarket and not get bothered.

James Purefoy

able actors want

One of the things that I discovered in my research is that some serial killers build an ultimate reality around themselves that they believe in, 100%.

James Purefoy

serial-killer believe reality

I'd never read a piece of television where it's an hour script and it's perfect.

James Purefoy

pieces perfect television

I like doing things that are very wildly different. I find that the meat and vegetables of being an actor is doing things that are completely different, all the time.

James Purefoy

different meat vegetables