Top 40 Douglas Henshall Quotes

We have a rich cultural tapestry in Scotland, it’s not that there’s a lack of stories.

Sometimes it’s easy for things get away from you, a little bit, if you have too many people coming in all the time, trying to put their mark on it. If something is successful, you don’t have to do that. All you have to do is keep doing what you’re doing, or have been doing.

I always think that your first test of loyalty as a young lad is your football team.

Normally, I bolt at the idea of playing anyone for too long because I don’t want it to become dull and like another job.

I had a film career in the late 90s. And then I stopped having a film career because suddenly I didn’t do anything.

In some respects, I was almost a country boy. I ran around in streams and rivers and all that sort of thing.

Well you know, there’s a lot of people on Shetland who’ve never been to Fair Isle. The place itself is very unique but also the people there were fantastic. They couldn’t have done enough for us.

Fundamentally, I do a job at which I can make a living and I like it. That’s the bottom line. I still really enjoy it. I like getting up and going to work. I’ve spent my whole adult creative life doing this.

I could never call myself a Chelsea fan. I’m a St Mirren supporter. But after about 35 years of watching St Mirren, I think I’m entitled to go and see what else there is.

Where I was brought up, if you were walking down the street and you looked at someone and they looked at you, you acknowledged them.

When I was a child growing up in Glasgow my parents did Christmas incredibly well. They were as excited about it as we were.

I’m interested in how people interact with the landscape around them, and the effect that has.

No, I wouldn’t like to be a policeman.

David Hayman gave me my Equity card and my first job out of drama school – the first person I really looked up to professionally.

For me, the best thing is the young actors that come in to the series as to see the depth and breadth of talent coming into the business is fantastic.

The Catholic Church is wealthier than Coca-Cola, but takes from some of the poorest people in the world.

One of the first jobs I did out of drama school was a panto at the Magnum.

I’m sure there are people who associate Iona with what they want it to be but for me it’s just a nice place.

It’s been great being on location in Shetland and out in the fresh air.

I wanted a jumper. After all, in Shetland you are in the land of the Fair Isle sweater. But then everyone said to avoid that – Sarah Lund has cornered the jumper market.

I suppose if the script and storyline is good, you’ve got to take what you’re given, really.

I do believe in my national identity. I’m very proud, of what I come from and where I come from, and there are values up there that I like and that I hold on to: loyalty I suppose, and a sense of humour, and a lack of self pity.

Nobody aspired to be an actor where I came from and I didn’t think I would get in anywhere.

I’ll lie awake and think about scenes I could have done better, that I could have filmed in a different way.

What the Americans have done is refuse to back down. They’ve refused to make the cheapest, lowest common denominator forms of entertainment for TV and instead have championed television drama as an important part of our culture.

Fatherhood, parenthood, is something that completely overwhelms you and absorbs you, and you just have to be the best dad that you can be.

The Scandis blew the crime genre out of the water and the Americans have been doing interesting things with it for years.

I don’t think I am someone who sits on someone else’s coat tails while others do worthwhile work.

When you’re young, there are always going to be one or two people who take a shine to you or get you and want to help you. Thank God for them.

I live in London, where you’re assaulted, from the minute you wake up. Your head becomes like a hive of bees, with all the noises being thrown at you, all the time. And then, you go somewhere like Shetland and you start to hear birds, wind, and natural sounds.

I entertain people. I think that’s pretty good. That’s what I contribute to society. I’m proud of what I do.

Ninety percent of the time when you see rape on the television it is gratuitous and there to either bolster viewing figures or as a lazy way of treating female cast.

I always feel I’d like to just play people who are a bit less complicated.

Flying to Fair Isle from Lerwick is an experience I’ll never forget.

One of my pet hates is people re-Tweeting praise, I loathe it more than anything else in the world.

But as an actor, you spend the majority of your life being rejected.

I’m the only emotional frame of reference I’ve got.

With ‘Shallow Grave’ people realised that you could set a film in Scotland and it didn’t have to be about leaky boats in the Highlands. Then ‘Trainspotting’ made it fashionable.

Do you know, I didn’t play a policeman up until I was 40, and then suddenly that’s what I have been asked to play.

It must be terribly odd if you spend most of your time on somewhere like Shetland and come to a big city.