The personal thing is something I have never talked about. And I never will. That is prohibited. My job is public. But that's it. When you're not working, you don't have an obligation to be public.
I believe in people.
When you are portraying somebody that has a very specific emotional weight, you feel like you're really starting to abandon your own body and go to someplace else.
Really, I don't see this heart-throb thing at all.
I look at myself, and I see a Spanish person who's trying to be understood by an English-speaking audience and is putting a lot of energy into that, instead of into expressing himself freely and feeling comfortable.
I want to act because I don't know how to do anything else.
There is no good side to celebrity.
I enjoy my job as long as I can create a character, otherwise it's boring.
My truth - what I believe - is that there are no answers here and, if you are looking for answers, you'd better choose the question carefully.
There is no middle ground in Hollywood; you're a failure or you're a success. That mentality is wild.
This great imperialistic world called the United States has made us believe that an Oscar is the most important thing in the world for an actor. But if you think about it for five minutes you realise it can't be.
I'm happily married.
You want to do your job well so that people in the future say, 'OK, he's not bad, let's hire him.'
When you know people are really at peace with who they are and what they do, they collaborate and want to help you to improve.
I truly don't have any formula for the choices I make.
I used to be a good party boy. I'm old. I'm an old man. You pay the consequences. I'm just fine with a couple of drinks, no more than that.
When I see myself at 14 years old I can put my hands on my head and think: 'How could I have done that?' but at that time it had sense for me. You do the same when you're 20. And now, when you look at people who are 20 years old you ask yourself: 'Was I like that? Was I really like that?'
I can't imagine what it would be like being James Bond 24 hours. That must be exhausting.
I do a job and am lucky enough to do a job that I love, but it is a hard one. I'm not saying it is as hard as working in a coal mine, but it is still difficult in a different way. Sometimes you have to go through very strong emotional journeys and then come back to yourself. And that can be difficult to control.
We live in the moment now where this whole movie business is crazy.
I've always said that playing rugby in Spain is like being a bullfighter in Japan.
My concern is to continue respecting my work as I've done since I began as an actor and I could only do that if I'm strong enough to keep on doing what I think best in an artistic way.
Awards were made in Hollywood, in whatever the time it was created. They're to promote each other's movies. You give me an award, I give you an award and people will believe that we are great movies and they'll go to see them. It's still the same.
I don't know how to drive a car.
But I remember the moment when my father died. I wasn't a very committed Catholic beforehand, but when that happened it suddenly all felt so obvious: I now believe religion is our attempt to find an explanation, for us to feel more protected.
The middle and working classes are paying the debt that the financial markets created.
The fact that I like to make characters doesn't mean that I like to watch my characters being made, my performance.
I've always belonged to the street, and I always will. It's in my DNA.
I was emotionally and physically punched in the stomach. This is not a place where you go and deliver the lines and then you come back. It's kind of a life-changing experience. But it can't get better than this for any actor - this is like an opera.
I don't really care where movies come from as long as they're worth making.
People have been born in refugee camps and they are getting tired of that.
Celebrity is very weird.
I do respect people's faith, but I don't respect their manipulation of that faith in order to create fear and control.
I live in Spain. Oscars are something that are on TV Sunday night. Basically, very late at night. You don't watch, you just read the news after who won or who lost.
When you put gas in your car you are making a political statement, because you are supporting the empires that control and continue the destruction of some countries.
The only thing I can do is act, but it's not something I even feel comfortable doing. It costs me a lot, because I'm a shy person, even if I don't look it.
Even in the darkest regions, people have discovered their right of freedom.
An award doesn't necessarily make you a better actor.
Every time I wake up, I see myself like somebody beat me up.
You know I don't like to talk about my personal life.
What does my performance have to do with Russell Crowe's? Nothing. If I play Gladiator and we all play Gladiator with Ridley Scott in the same amount of time, maybe we have a chance to see who did it best.
Some quality performances and movies have a chance to be rewarded, but it's not like it's a bible.
I'm a great believer in stunt doubles. They do an amazing job.
I think we are living in selfish times. I'm the first one to say that I'm the most selfish. We live in the so-called 'first world,' and we may be first in a lot of things like technology, but we are behind in empathy.
The bad news is that only the bad people reach the news because they are noisier.
And the whole Oscar thing, that is just surreal: you spend months and months doing promotion, and then come back to reality with this golden thing in your hands. You put it in the office and then you just have to look at it sitting on the shelf. And, after about two weeks, you go: 'What is that doing there?'
I don't believe in stereotypes. Most of the time, stereotypes are just that.
But don't call me an actor. I'm just a worker. I am an entertainer. Don't say that what I am doing is art.
The good thing about being an actor, and the gift of being an actor, is that you are beautifully forced to see the world with different eyes.
