“I can deal with it now, but 13 is a tough age to be recognized and famous. It’s a tough age, period.”

To me, it’s all about inspiration. What gets me creatively excited is a challenge.

Be Impeccable with Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean.

I’ve always been a night person. There’s a sense of virtue attached to getting up in the morning and doing things and starting the day, and I always felt bad for not being that person. But as I’ve gotten a bit older, now I’m completely okay with it. That’s just who I am.

In terms of jobs, I’m an actor. There’s gotta’ be depth there. I’d never say yes to something just to play the hot guy. That’s not what I’m interested in.

I come from a family of pacifists, so it’s not like I was going to join the war. Sweden is not like the States or England where you might get sent to Afghanistan next month.

There’s something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden.

Eventually, I landed the job, and that was something that I felt transcended whatever other people would think of me.

At the time, number four of the Skarsgård actors. So in high school I majored in science and was like, “Maybe I’ll do something rebellious and become a doctor.”

I had no idea what I wanted to do. In my last two years of high school here happened to be these few scripts that I really responded to.

I don’t want to ever think that I don’t know what to do. I want to deal with my own things, to perform my own roles, to be like, “I did this.”

My height can be a problem. A lot of directors and photographers are sometimes not happy because I’m pretty tall and especially if I work with short actors the difference can be pretty massive.

When I read a script and have my first interaction with this character, do I feel like there’s something I’m gonna’ learn here? If I feel like it’s something I’ve done before, then what’s the incentive for me to do it?

I have three older brothers, and each one of them has chosen one of my parents’ education. Two of them are actors, and the third is a doctor as my mother is.

I’m always looking for something that’s real and that’s got meat on it. I think it’s artistic suicide if you’re too vain, or if you’re afraid to play ugly. I would never fall for that.

I’m a standup comedian who gets to act. I’m never going to not do standup. I love doing it and when I go through periods where I’m doing a lot of acting work, I still do standup.

I haven’t done period dramas back-to-back, or really anything back-to-back. You get asked to do what you’re most recently famed for, so I’m careful of not repeating myself.

Don’t trust somebody that don’t have a troubled period.

A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.

I am very enamored with the free press, and I was part of it for a period of time.

After I came back [to China], there was still a long period of time when I felt I had nothing to do.