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John Hume
Nobel Prize for Peace
John Hume: The IRA and Sinn Fein, what was called the Republican movement, were engaged in violence in order to attempt to solve our problem, and I was strongly opposed to that violence. And, of course, there was violence as well from the Unionist side, the loyalist paramilitaries, and of course, I felt it's everyone's duty to do everything they could to get the violence stopped. And of course, thousands of British soldiers in our streets couldn't stop the violence. And, when I started my dialogue, I was, of course, was very heavily attacked for it. But, as I made clear at the time, if thousands of soldiers in our streets can't stop the violence, if I can save one single human life by talking, it's my duty to do so. And, I engaged directly in dialogue with Gerry Adams. And, of course, the dialogue arose out of the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985, and my party, we were very heavily involved in the creation of that agreement.
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Jeremy Irons
Award-winning Stage and Screen Actor
If you're successful in a sort of role, when people read another role that's rather similar they think, "Ask him, he's the man." You read it and you say, "I've done this. I did this for this guy. I don't want to do this." So nevertheless, what I'm saying is that what one is -- one's parameters are constantly narrowed by one's success, and my desire is to widen my field even if I risk failure. The risk of failure and daring failure, I think, is another great way towards success, which George Orwell says in 1984 doesn't he? I don't remember the quote but, "If you take away the freedom to risk then you take away the freedom to succeed." I'm misquoting. What I try to do as an actor is constantly find that, find ways to risk, find opportunities to fall on my face if it's going to be worth it and then maybe I'll surprise myself.
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Jeremy Irons
Award-winning Stage and Screen Actor
"You're being very British about this, Jeremy. You're 30. If you're going to make it in this life you're going to make it in your 30s. And you think you're right, and you're stepping down because you've been told you can't win in court -- If that's the way you're going to manage your life then fine, but don't expect too much." So I sat down. I had a couple of martinis and dinner and then returned to my home and wrote a long letter to the chairman of the television company telling him that I was off unless by six o'clock the following day he would agree to release me to make this film. And I laid out -- I knew everything he would do to me. I said, "I know you can bar me from the union. I know you can sue me." They by then had spent eight million, I think. I said, "My house is worth 85,000. That's about all I have but you can sue me for that. I'm not a hysterical actor. I'm just an actor against the wall." You know. I called my lawyer the first thing in the morning and read it over the phone to him and said, "That's what I want to send." He said, "If you're absolutely sure. You seem to know the down side." I said, "Yes." He says, "All right. Fax it to me and I'll have it delivered around," which he did.
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Jeremy Irons
Award-winning Stage and Screen Actor
I went to lunch with my agent in a restaurant. There was a phone call during lunch from the chairman of the television company who said, "Will you come for tea?" I said, "Yes." I asked my agent for a valium, went to walk the dog on Hampstead Heath, and then went down to have tea with the chairman of Grenada, who was very cross, said he felt let down. I said, "I feel let down. We're both in the same boat." He said, "If I can work something out, will you go back to work?" I said, "Certainly. I'll be back there tomorrow morning." He left the room for about 15 minutes, came back in and said, "I'll work this out in three weeks. Give me three weeks." So I went back to work. Three weeks later they tied the two things together, the film and the television, so that the film paid for the down time in the television, and the television invested in the film, and I was able to do both. But on the journey down, the night before when I had driven down in my Volkswagen Beetle, a long drive on the M6, about a four-hour drive, I remember thinking "That's it. That is it. Now if I'm not going to act, what am I going to do? I could be an agent. Should I write? Well, can I write? I don't know." But I knew that was it. And I knew that I had taken my destiny in my hand in a way that I had never felt before and I think that's when I grew up. I knew I was my own man. I could do anything.
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Peter Jackson
Oscar for Best Director
I left the newspaper, left my full-time job after seven years. I left at the moment the Film Commission came in with money for me to finish it. Quit my job, and I've never been back there since. Always felt that one day I might have to go back, but I guess now I probably can start to put those fears to rest. I still have recurring dreams that I'm back at the newspaper there, that things haven't worked out well in the film business, and I'm back in the photolithography department.
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