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• "I don't love acting. How can you love something when you sit around 12 hours a day and work 10 minutes a day? I'm just doing it because it keeps me off the streets and out of jail."

• "Auditions always make me nervous."

• "I'd love to just make films in Ireland because I'd be at home. But I don't like playing Irish characters because I want to play as many characters as I can and make a fool of myself until somebody finally goes, 'That's crap.' Then I'll go and play Irish fellas."

• "People's perception of me was that I was quite a feral character and there was something quite dangerous about me, then I did 'Beckham' and people said, 'Oh, he's actually a sweet boy, too.'"

• "What makes acting difficult is the buisness end of it. Because no matter how genius an actor is or how many millions of dollars he makes, he can look back in his past and see a sea of rejection, even the people who are at the top of their game."

• "What's difficult about the prospect is trying to reinvent your self-confidence, even though it's constantly being torn down."

• "When you want to be an actor, especially in films, you've got to have a certain arrogance, but I'm looking at things in the long term, because a star is very short term, you only see it when it explodes."

• Explaining how early rejections made him more driven in his pursuit of an acting career: "It drove me to madness. And it drove me to an anger, a hunger to where I wanted to prove them wrong and so I kept going for auditions. I got rejection after rejection. I thought I was fighting Michael Tyson at one point because I was just getting beaten so much, beaten so much, beaten so much. And then, I got a role. It was like punching back. I think I've knocked them out now."

• On his role in Sandra Goldbacher's "The Governess": "It was with a first-time director, which I always like because I'm new to this business, and I think, wow, maybe I can do something in this that will make the director great. We're all helping each other up."

• On how he approaches character: "As opposed to being romantic and poetic about it, I start walking hand in hand with my own honesty about myself. I would never sit down and study a character. The character is in me and all I have to do is bring it to the surface, so I look really truthfully at myself and what I am. If you're giving an honest emotion and you're not trying to fake anything, it's going to be beautiful because honesty is what people feel, essentially, and it can turn into art. Every character I play is just an aspect of who I am. Everybody has every emotion in the world. Some people aren't able to surface them and I'm lucky enough that I can."

• "Being an actor is the easiest job. Just say the lines."

• "You get on a set and immediately people are wiping your ass for you, and nobody tells you when you're being an asshole. I'm sure nobody working for Tom Cruise would turn around and say, 'Tom, don't do that anymore because you're a dickhead to do that'. Actually, he might quite like it".

• "I felt lower then than I did when I was 13 years old, I remember getting out of the limo with Toni and Christian Bale and walking towards all these photographers, and they were going, 'Hey! Toni! Look over here! Hey, Christian, here!' And I just walked on because nobody had an idea who I was. It was a horrible experience." - Cannes Film Festival 1998

• "There will be ups and downs, but it's important to remember you're on your own beautiful journey and once you're on it you have to see it through to its conclusion and try to never be afraid to do anything because what is the worse that can happen?"

• "A lot of men are very uptight, but I don't distinguish between male and female beauty. Beauty is beauty."

• "I think it is important to stay close to your roots and be true to yourself, be honest. I don't want to play games in Hollywood and pretend to be someone else. I still suffer from insecurity and that situation would make it worse."

• "But actors, everything is so physical. You're basically the only product you have. The hardest part of acting is realizing it doesn't matter. I'm going to try and not take it too seriously because, if I do, I would really wreck my head."

• "I think I'd really like to be someone who would be known for being a nice guy."

• "I've never gone to acting school and I never will, so I'm learning about the business from the people who are in the business. It doesn't seem like I work at all. And the unknown is always exciting."

• "... I wouldn't date an actress. There's only room for one actor in my life and I'm it. Too difficult. On the one hand, they understand the job. But on the other hand, it's very competitive within the relationship. Two actors, say one becomes a mega-star and the other doesn't. Happens all the time. So one is getting so much attention, and the other person feels jealous."

• "I don't have many friends that are actors. It's a very faux environment. I don't call people up after films."

• "I find actors who play nasty guys in movies are the nicest guys in real life, and the opposite then goes for heroes."

• "At some point in your career as an actor you're going to have to get on a Stairmaster. The days of Harris and O'Toole are gone. If you want to be at the top of your game, you can't be out partying with your friends, or having six pints a night down the pub."