I don't know if they were all functioning, but I did play in a bunch of bands.

Talent is very hot.

How do you play 'righteous'? Do you just kind of stand up straighter? What does that mean as an actor? You don't really play a quality.

I wouldn't mind seeing The Smiths reform. That would be cool.

I think that when you decide to dedicate yourself to creative endeavors and surround yourself with people who are creative, you very quickly learn how hard it is to survive doing those kinds of things, not to mention make a living at them.

I had a great conversation with Tom Waits, of all people.

I was in bands, but they were punk bands, and you plug in the guitars, you turn them up really loud, you've got four or five other people on stage with you, you've got some protection from when they throw lighters. You can always hide behind the lead singer or the bass player.

Every frame of a Coen brothers movie is filled with history and meaning, and the deeper you go, the deeper you get. That's why their movies stand up particularly well to repeated viewing and investigation.

I feel like being an artist and being an activist are separate things; I know some people who feel very differently.

For me, with a character, you start with the shoes.

When I'm creating a character, I don't see it so much as playing someone else as just playing a specific part of myself under certain circumstances.

Being someone with Latin roots, so many doors are constantly closed for you because people put you in a category, and the thing I've always wanted to avoid is categorisation.

I think that's why often people in creative fields can feel so alone is because there's a constant third eye, that constant watcher.

I like films that take their time a little bit more and don't show you all of their cards right away, characters that are conflicted and contradicting and seem one way at first and then suddenly turn out to be something else.

I've never been interested in celebrity.

I think it's the director's prerogative, not the studio's, to go back and reinvent a movie.

A personal game-changer was when Ridley Scott cast me as King John, the King of England, for 'Robin Hood.'

I've always liked acoustic blues. I liked Bob Dylan a lot.

I started playing guitar at, like, 12 or 13 and just rock bands mostly. I had a punk rock band and hard core bands and all that.

'Drive' is a genre piece, and a lot of times we don't get really sophisticated genre films.

I had an audition where Josh Brolin was pelting me with his personality. I didn't get the part.

You watch 'Whale Rider,' and I defy you to not get teary-eyed at the end there.

The very first proper play I did was 'Godspell,' and I played the guitar for it, and I had a small part in a high school play. And before that, in sixth grade, I wrote a musical about Noah's ark.

I was interested in the war part of 'Star Wars,' so I started reading about what it's like to go to war, what that does to you psychically, about the adrenaline and the rush.