Sometimes shooting on a smaller scale, as long as things don't blow out of proportion, is very liberating.
I've got to be high class... Which is sad, because I like bars.
I genuinely believe that if you want to get in the film business, get in the film business.
Now, product placement, whichever way you look at it, whether you like it or you think it's disgusting, or whatever, it's what it is.
As a kid, I kind of spent my life being amazed by being tricked. I love being tricked. I still love it today.
I don't care what other people are doing.
My family and friends treat me as they always have.
It's not like I go out there to be a sex symbol. I mean, it's nice of course - but embarrassing.
I don't care about how much other actors get.
I stopped worrying about being desired a long time ago.
I have to be myself.
Suits are looked at more now as a business thing which is kind of a shame. If you're not wearing it just for work, you should try and trick it up a bit.
The days of the misogynistic Bond are sort of over.
Although I'm not from London originally: I moved down here when I was 16, so it's played a part in my life. It's where I've lived for all that time.
I love that my friends are all freaks.
My mother gave me a real kick toward cooking, which was that if I wanted to eat, I'd better know how to do it myself.
If I wanted to make spy movies for the rest of my life, that would be one thing, but I don't want to just make spy movies.
I never really had a strong accent.
I'm potentially worth a lot of money, but I've got to go and make something that's worth a lot of money.
I was sick and tired of being an English actor who did a lot of American movies because I was cheap and good.
I used to think the press was a necessary evil and now I don't think it is. I think it's something you choose.
I just think that the collective experience of going to see a film is something you can't recreate.
You know, I think the film business is its own worst enemy because it sells movies on DVD footage and 'behind the scenes,' and now it's a real struggle trying to keep storylines and plotlines a secret.
I just wanted to play a cowboy for a long time.
In all good westerns, the good guy is always a little bit questionable because he kind-of has to make moral judgments.
Things need shaking up politically, culturally.
I'm obsessive enough about getting fit, it's ridiculous. I'm 40 now, and I've got to stop doing it soon. I have to start getting fat and old!
I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.
I've been very lucky.
The bad reviews get to me, believe me.
Even the worst Bond movies, there's something to love about them.
I take my work seriously.
I know what I like in other actors: truth. That's the best. It makes you say, 'OK, I'll go with you on this.'
The worst situation you can have in a thriller is a lead who looks like he can handle himself.
When you're making movies you've got to get obsessive.
Good scripts are hard to find.
I'm not trying to be macho, I promise you.
I know it's surprising, but there is a generation of people who haven't seen a Bond movie. They have no idea what it is. I want to entertain them as much as anyone else.
I've done a lot of things in my life.
There's more than one way to sense violence.
I got through college.
I'm a really bad liar.
You need to impress me, outwit me, compete with me? Go ahead, knock yourself out, I have no problem with that at all.
In many films, as many different characters, I've killed many different people.
I guess you could say I've been in my share of violent movies.
I've always retained my privacy, but now I protect it even more.
I had to have shoulder reconstruction.
You're creating new things in movies and people are going to steal them.
I'm definitely not satisfied about my career. I don't know how you can be, it's the very nature of things.
Look, I'm in love. I'm very happy.
There's a conscious decision to everything I do.
I have never played a role in which someone's dark side shouldn't be explored.
I know in my life there's stuff that will come back because I haven't dealt with it, and it's the same with everybody.
There's a passion about this because people take it very close to their hearts and they have grown up with James Bond - and so have I. But I was being criticized before I had presented anything, so it was name calling.
The subject matter is very tricky. It's about the Munich massacre and what Mossad did afterwards with the assassination squads. I think it's a turning point in history, especially for the Palestinians.
I find it very easy playing Bond. I think he's hilarious. He gets himself into some extraordinarily funny situations.
He knows that you have ability and what he does is he manipulates it and sort of empowers you.
Any voices or fantasies, he lives with. Those are his everyday life things.
I didn't want to do a zoo show. I didn't want to do a study of someone with mental illness. I just wanted to show someone who was trying to live their life.
I always wanted to make movies.
I've always reverted to a sense of childhood, just in everyday life.
I can't really dress rock 'n' roll any more because I'm the wrong side of 40, but I want that to be the fashion.
I can't go to war with paparazzi.
A secret is a secret in my mind.
I think there's a lot to be said for keeping your own counsel.
Being on your own would be sad, sick and weird. I don't trust myself. I need that balance.
It's a huge challenge, a huge responsibility. Bond is a huge iconic figure in movie history. These opportunities don't come along very often so I thought, 'Why not?'
There's no real side to be on because I think it was a mess.
We agreed to do it when I was drunk at his house one night, then on the day I had to have four large brandies - they didn't touch the sides at all. People just got on with it though. It didn't gather a crowd!
It's a Tim sandwich. The meat is fresh, but the bread is moldy.
Intimate scenes on a movie set are just dry, bizarre things; people standing around.
At some point, life starts to pass you by and becomes about avoidance. I want to stay clear from that situation, because I don't like that.
You've got to live your life, you've got to enjoy it.
The genuine truth, and I do think about this a lot, is that I'm one of the least competitive people you'll ever meet. Except with myself.
Anybody can leap off a building.
I've always loved to dress up a bit and show off.
I want people to treat me as normally as they can. Anybody who doesn't, I feel awkward with.
I don't say: 'can't do that', 'won't do that'. I've never thought in that way about work.
I've never really had a desire to do Shakespeare. For me, it's just too many lines.
You get used to the rejection and you don't take it personally.
Revenge doesn't stop.
I like going to the gym every day because I'm in physiotherapy every day.
There's always going to be someone with a bigger toy than yours.
When you read a novel, your own imagery is the most important. It's what makes reading such a wonderful thing.
Sexiness, particularly in movies, is the chess game in the 'Thomas Crown Affair'. It's, it's, I don't know, but Faye Dunaway comes up a lot in that thinking. It's the subtlety of sexiness. The moment you try to be sexy, then it's not.
The idea of regretting not doing this seemed insane to me. Sitting in the corner at a bar at age 60, saying: 'I could've been Bond. Buy me a drink.' That's the saddest place I could be. At least now at 60 I can say: 'I was Bond. Now buy me a drink.'
I just felt that you can't have a character fall in love so madly as they did in the last movie and not finish it off, understand it, get some closure. That's why the movie is called 'Quantum of Solace' - that's exactly what he's looking for.
It's not like I was trying to be sexy but I had to get fit because I had to be able to do stunts. Also I wanted that, if Bond took his clothes off, he looked like a man who did what he did, which was kill people for a living. I thought the only way to do that was to work out and get fit and buff and get physically into shape.
As soon as someone tells me: 'You're rather sexy,' I wish I could disappear. If somebody says: 'You were voted the world's sexiest man,' I have no idea what that means. How do I respond? 'Thank you' is the best you can do. George Clooney is the world's sexiest man, anyway.
The truth is, I don't have any problem with journalists - I count some of them as friends - also some of my heroes are journalists, I'm a big fan of Robert Fisk - great people or crazy people who are prepared to stand up for what's right.
