“People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed, but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.”

I’m English. Our dentistry is not world famous. But I made sure I got moldings of my old teeth beforehand because I miss them.

And I not only inherited an aversion to the nine-to-five routine, but the sense from my parents that being bored and boring is the worst thing that you can be.

We are starting off with our own different characters and our own laws and everything, looking at Bruce Wayne and how he came to be the person that he was and how he comes to be this man that jumps around in the Bat suit.

I always want to confuse people in terms of any kind of image and be unpredictable in any kind of movie I make.

I don’t get it when you get so much openness about the way movies are made, and the special effects and the behind-the-scenes stuff and all of that. I can’t help but feel like this reduces it a little bit.

I never, in any city I’ve ever been in, never remember the names of streets. The longest place I ever lived in was for five years and I didn’t know the name of the next street over.

All I’ve ever ended up with in terms of achievements is the movie, some really stupid anecdotes, a bunch of crosswords that I didn’t finish and maybe some old bicycle that I found lying around on set.

But I enjoyed getting sick, I didn’t mind it at all. So in that short amount of time, I did actually go from 121 right back up to 180, which is way too fast obviously. And that resulted in some doctors visits to get things sorted out.

I don’t think I’m like any of the characters I’ve played. They’re all really far from who I am.

I swear, the bigger your muscles get, the duller you are. You become fascinated with carbs and protein and ripped abs and things that are just not interesting at all.

I have this theory that, depending on your attitude, your life doesn’t have to become this ridiculous charade that it seems so many people end up living.

You have to treat yourself like a mushroom to some degree, in order to keep on discovering things.

My dad was the biggest influence on my life because he was never boring.

It’s got to do with putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them. I like the empathy that comes from acting.

I start from scratch with each movie; I wipe the slate and I certainly don’t rely on some bag of acting tricks I’ve amassed over the years.

Art is something to be proud of. Art is no compromise. As an actor, you’re giving it up, you’re at the mercy of so many other people.

There is always one woman to save you from another and as that woman saves you she makes ready to destroy.

Trees, though they are cut and lopped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again.

What would a narrative of happiness be like? All that can be described is what prepares it, and then what destroys it.

It is better to destroy one’s own errors than those of others.

Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power – not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.

People who destroy your character because your character destroys their inner peace.

Love creates an “us” without destroying the “me”.

But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.