Richard Dormer Quotes

I could live in a community like ‘Fortitude.’

The first director I ever worked with on ‘Thrones,’ he had a big hand in casting me. He said he cast me because there was a bit of an Alec Guinness about me, but a very dangerous Alec Guinness.

When I was 16, my friends were in a drama group, and they asked me to join. I said no, I’m not interested, that it’s not really for me.

Having a weapon like that means you’re pretty much in control of events. Nobody’s going to argue with a flaming sword.

Sometimes you even start to sound like the character, because you’re living and breathing them every day on the set. It gets into your bones, it becomes a part of you.

Sometimes you even start to sound like the character because you’re living and breathing them every day on the set. It gets into your bones.

I met David Croft. He was a man of few words. But he had great charisma.

A lot of the time, because of the polar bears you’re not allowed to go outside the door without your hunting rifle, even if it’s to go to the local shop. The polar bears will come from nowhere, and you’ll be eaten alive.

As a writer you see the big picture and how you can tell as one character, how your storyline is going to meet up with all these other storylines. And as an actor you’re thinking of all the minutiae, all the very small details.

When you’re working with really good actors, it raises your own game and you get better.

There was that sense that as soon as a Northern Irish person opens their mouth, you go, ‘Ah, terrorist,’ so I refused to do TV and film. Instead, I did theatre for 20 years.

Gene Roddenberry is one of the greatest guys who ever lived because he gave us hope that the future might be bright and we could accept one another for whoever we were, even if we were alien. That’s an amazing message, don’t you think?

It’s a real luxury to be able to develop with your character.

When you read something that good, it’s terrifying because you’re thinking, “Oh, god, what if I don’t get this?”

I think, as a writer, you see the big picture, and as an actor, you’re thinking of all the minutiae, all the very small details.

So much Western storytelling comes from Scandinavia. I’ve read that in the past, storytellers would travel to Iceland and exchange stories. It’s kind of the birthplace of great storytelling.

When you get out onto a glacier that’s the size of Northern Ireland and it’s so vast, and you’re standing on top of it and you can see forever, it’s so pure and clear that you can see for miles and miles and miles. You really do think, “Wow, there is a god!” You feel very humbled.

Did it ever occur to you that there might be more than one alternative?

I was fascinated by the world. I thought, “I just want to be a part of this world.”

‘Fortitude’ is like the world in microcosm. It’s like watching America or Russia, only you’re isolated. Once you’re inside, you can’t escape.

I think the benefit of being a writer is that I’m looking for the subtext on the page, because all good writing has subtext. And as a writer, you look at the big scope of things, the big story, rather than just your individual story line, because I think it’s important to know what you’re in and how you fit into it.