"One of my dreams came true when Julian [Schnabel] showed the movie ['Before Night Falls' (2000)] to Al Pacino and he called me at 3 a.m. Spanish time and told me he liked my performance. I told him, 'I don't believe in God, I believe in Al Pacino.'"

"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 to see who won or who lost... The award is important in order to bring people to the movie theater. That's the only principal meaning of any award."

"We are so scared about talking about death that we are letting people die in silence. It is good to talk publicly."

"It would be amazing to think your film or your performance had the power to make changes, but it's enough that it makes people talk and think. Maybe they shouldn't do anything anyway. The Church has strong feelings and we respect that."

"It's exhausting, almost a full-time job. Last time, I found it was too much about bringing attention to yourself." - On his Oscar nomination for "Before Night Falls"

"I'm proud of the fact that I got so many people to sit down and watch a story like 'Before Night Falls' even at the expense, I felt, of some of my personal life."

"I think the movie speaks of a lack of meaning in violence. I embody violence, I am violence itself in the movie, and there is a man... Who is trying to understand the meaning of it and at the end there is no meaning." - On "No Country for Old Men"

"I'm getting more comfortable now, but it will never get to the point as if you are doing it in your own language. When I say 'I love you' or 'I hate you' in Spanish, many things come to my mind, aspects of my own life. When I say it in English, I don't have the memories."

"All the work I usually do: imagining the past, the circumstances of the character in this case I didn't do it. We all saw him as a force of nature the embodiment of violence." - On his character Chigurh in "No Country for Old Men"

"All of the good movies are based on how that story was told. And you cannot do it with a bad script, that's for sure, no matter who."

"We actors always say how difficult and physically demanding a role was. But give me a break, it's only a movie."

"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."

"Sometimes I say to myself, what are you doing in this absurd job? Why don't you go to Africa and help people? But I cannot help people, because I am a hypochondriac."

"Everybody in Spain is sick of me. But in America, there's curiosity about the new kid on the block who doesn't speak English very well. The attention makes me feel vulnerable, which is something I hadn't felt in a while. But I like it."

"In this modern world there is a sheriff called George Bush who wants to kill the bad guys, like in a bad western movie, but not everybody is bad. Now it's the war between evil and good. What the fuck is that? Life is a little bit more complicated than that."

"I come from a very political background. A guy with a gun came up to me and pretended to shoot me, and I was supposed to laugh but I began to cry instead. The director said, 'It's not what I wanted but I like it.' And that day I realised that I will always fight with directors."

"I picture 'Before Night Falls', the poet, talking to Chigurh. I don't know what they would talk about. Or, 'The Sea Inside', the guy laid down on the sofa, maybe he'd ask Chigurh to kill him."

"The fact of being a Spaniard, and living in Spain, enables me to see things from the outside, with a camera B. It's good to go back to your roots and to see everything with a second camera. When you see yourself from the outside, you see how small everything is, how unimportant."

"If I could work with Fellini and Mastriantani, that would be the ultimate acting orgasm."

"Everybody is asking me: 'How was wearing that wig?' But it's not a wig – it's my hair. So that answers every question. It was insane to have three months with that haircut and also lead a decent, normal life. But for the character it worked pretty good I think. It's funny to see someone so weird and wild with that feminine haircut. I found the feminine side of Chigurh. I would also wear a net with it to keep it still."

"I don't particularly like violence in movies. But when violence has a reason to be there in order to explain something it's OK. Most of the time it's totally gratuitous and I just don't want to see those movies. It's difficult to find movies these days without violence, with people killing people. It's not that I'm a very sensitive guy, it's that I go there and see it and ask: “Why? What is all of this for?” And I always step out and leave the movie theatre."

"Oh my God, I think it's a joke! I hate my nose, and they know that. So when my agent sent me the 'I thought she was kidding! I said: 'That's a nice joke, can you imagine if that was true?' And it was true. I thought this can't be happening. It now looks as though I like to sniff Josh Brolin." - On the No Country for Old Men poster