My only obligation is to keep myself and other people guessing.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

I'm incredibly boring; I had a very happy childhood. I never starved, nor did I have a silver spoon in my mouth. I'm one of those terribly middle-of-the-road, British middle class, South London gents.

I'm happiest at home hanging out with the kids... Having a family has been my saving grace because I don't work back to back on anything or I'd drive myself to an early grave with guilt and worry for my family, whom I'd never see.

I was an optimist, a great champion of the human spirit. And I lost that for a time. I feel like I've regained a bit of that in the last few years but there was a period of my life in which I had a very low opinion of people in general.

I've always liked what Thomas More said in Utopia, which is that in Utopia every person is allowed their own lifestyle and religion but no one is allowed to stand on a soapbox and tell others that theirs is right. I thought that was brilliant. Brilliant.

I don't want to do anything that I'm not passionate about.

The only film I ever made for money was something called 'Music From Another Room', which I really didn't like.

In a way it was like washing your laundry in public and, yep, there you go, you've seen my underwear. And now I feel like there's nothing left, you've seen it all and I can get on.

When you suddenly appear on the scene and you are the new face, everything centers on you. I experienced this in my mid-20s and I found it rather hard.

If I have a look around at the moment I feel great relief because finally others are entering the limelight. Men like Robert Pattinson must now play the Adonis. For me it was always a restraint, a restriction.

Personally speaking there's only so long you can go from film to film to film. There's an inspiration an actor gets from the stage.

When you step back and watch people, you realize that we use every single body part. Movement, dance - I find it genius because it's ultimate expression, really.

I've never been a fan of just doing. I like to do things for a reason.

You can't spend your life apologizing.

I sometimes shy away because I don't want to be too 'showy-offy' but the older I get I think, 'You have a handkerchief, put it in your pocket.'

I don't consider myself any great sage of fashion or style, whatever people may want to think.

I suppose I'm intrigued with the bad traits of society, because I'm a part of society, and the bad traits pose the dangerous questions for our future.

We all have times when we go home at night and pull out our hair and feel misunderstood and lonely and like we're falling. I think the brain is such that there is always going to be something missing.

I'm kind of ashamed to be a celebrity. I don't understand wanting to read about other people's dirty laundry. I think celebrity is the biggest red herring society has ever pulled on itself.

Face it, I didn't become famous until I took my clothes off.

London is my home... I know what's right and wrong here, and it's nice to have somewhere familiar to go back to.

I'm not Tom Cruise. Very few British actors are. If you look at the body of work I've done it's pretty obvious I'm not going to make a 'Mission: Impossible.'

I think it's a bigger risk following a part that plays up your looks than it is to try and carve out a career as an actor.

Success, and even life itself, wouldn't be worth anything if I didn't have my wife and children by my side. They mean everything to me.

I honestly have no interest in celebrity whatsoever. If anything, I always cringe at it because it takes away from what I am, which is an actor who wants to be better and do better things.

I sometimes shy away because I don't want to be too 'showy-offy' but the older I get I think, 'You have a handkerchief, put it in your pocket.'

You cant spend your life apologizing.

I'm only wanted by directors for the image I give off, and it makes me angry. I always wanted to be an actor and not a beauty pageant winner.

Women like bad boys…Being a good boy never worked for me.

In a weird way, it’s kind of a relief to think, ‘Oh, I know I’m not that young sort of pretty thing anymore.’ It’s quite nice talking about what it was like to be the young pretty thing, rather than being it.

A job is not just a job. It’s who you are.

I suppose that some days I wake up I have to wake up and be responsible, reliable and down to earth, and some days I don't.

Face it, I didn't become famous until I took my clothes off.

If you want to change who you are, you have to change what you do.

I feel more and more at ease, because I think the older I get, the less pressure there is. People say, 'Well, he's not cutting edge because he's not in his twenties, so he's not expected to be.'

I don't consider myself any great sage of fashion or style, whatever people may want to think.

There is no defence for my actions which I sincerely regret. [on an affair with nanny Daisy Wright]

I only want to do the kind of work that I would like to go and see, that`s going to teach me something new, that involves working with people I can learn something from and I can give something to.

I've always thought Prince Charming in Cinderella was the most boring role; I'd rather be the Wicked Witch.

There is something nice about wearing the same thing everyday, having that go-to.

I think the message of peace is for everyone.

I think it's a bigger risk following a part that plays up your looks than it is to try and carve out a career as an actor.

I've never been a fan of just doing. I like to do things for a reason.

I suppose I'm intrigued with the bad traits of society, because I'm a part of society, and the bad traits pose the dangerous questions for our future.

I don't want to do anything that I'm not passionate about.

The other nice thing about the robes is that they keep you cool in the summer, and we were filming sometimes in Rome, where it was sometimes over 100 degrees.

Look, how many stories have I broken? Hundreds. How many have proved to be untrue? There isn't one.

It's interesting to see how people bring different things to them. I think it comes down to the universal appeal of the Holmes-Watson that they can keep being discovered in different ways.

Landing a role now is not based on my looks - more on my acting ability.