Javier Bardem quotes:

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.

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 do respect people's faith, but I don't respect their manipulation of that faith in order to create fear and control.

Many people out there don't have a choice in choosing their friends and the people they're being manipulated by. Thank God, I have that choice. I can use my judgment and choose.

Now, there are so many movies, so many festivals, and so many awards going on, each judged with each other, like your work is worse than others and that's not fair. How can you tell what's best and what's worst from these awards? We're talking about art.

I am always saying, 'I don't believe in God; I believe in Al Pacino.' And that's true. If I ever get a phone call saying 'Would you like to work with Al Pacino?' I would go crazy.

The middle and working classes are paying the debt that the financial markets created.

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.

Imagine the situation between Israel and Palestine. It's such a big mess. You can be on one side or the other. But what's clear is that there's an urgent need for a solution there and that's been dragging on for so long.

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.

I can't imagine what it would be like being James Bond 24 hours. That must be exhausting.

I will work with a director who has good material because at the end of the day, that's what counts.

I'm a great believer in stunt doubles. They do an amazing job.

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.

I truly thank whoever's up there for giving me the opportunity to be loved.

Every time I wake up, I see myself like somebody beat me up.

We live in the moment now where this whole movie business is crazy.

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 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.

I have this problem with violence. I've only done one movie in almost 20 years where I killed people. It's called Perdita Durango. It's a Spanish movie. I'm very proud of the movie, but I felt weird doing that.

I want to act because I don't know how to do anything else.

There is no good side to celebrity.

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.

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 background - your own history - is way more important than what you can achieve as a professional.

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?'

Some quality performances and movies have a chance to be rewarded, but it's not like it's a bible.

I don't really care where movies come from as long as they're worth making.

I enjoy my job as long as I can create a character, otherwise it's boring.

I have a man and a woman in the same body; I have the male and female values in the same body.

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.

People have been born in refugee camps and they are getting tired of that."

I've always said I don't believe in God, I believe in Al Pacino.

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.

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.

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

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?'

The earliest memories I have from my childhood are of my mum getting ready to go on stage. I must have been about five and I would watch her vomiting backstage on opening night, and then the next minute she became Isabella, the Queen of Spain. At the time I remember thinking, 'What kind of schizophrenic job is this?' Now it all makes sense.

People have been born in refugee camps and they are getting tired of that.

I don't believe in stereotypes. Most of the time, stereotypes are just that.

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.

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.

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.

Bond is the longest-running franchise ever and there's a reason for that: they are action movies but they are also touched by current events without being political or too serious.

The bad news is that only the bad people reach the news because they are noisier.

An award doesn't necessarily make you a better actor.

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.

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.

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.

There is no middle ground in Hollywood; you're a failure or you're a success. That mentality is wild.

The award is important in order to bring people to the movie theater. That's the only principle meaning of any award.

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.

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.

We live in a world of denial, and we don't know what the truth is anymore.

You shall love. Whether you like it or not.

You don't need a man, you need a champion.

I've always said that playing rugby in Spain is like being a bullfighter in Japan.

I'm a huge fan of the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and his work, and I knew he was going to be an amazing actor's director, based on the performances that I saw in his movies.

I hate violence. When I hold a gun, I feel death in my hands, but it's fun to pretend in the movies.

I look in the mirror and I don't see a sex symbol. I just see a guy who looks like he's been beaten with a baseball bat. I mean, is this the face of a sex symbol? They say that because I work in the movies.

A part of being an actor is I people watch. I like to observe their behaviour, watch their reactions on the street and see how they talk to each other, and that's impossible when they are looking back at you. I used to enjoy taking the train and watching people in their own minds, struggling with themselves.

Even in the darkest regions, people have discovered their right of freedom.

Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time.

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.

Celebrity is very weird.

I retired from rugby because I was old and getting really slow.

When I was born, there was a very isolated idea of what it meant to be a man or a woman, and you belonged to one gender or the other.

I've always belonged to the street, and I always will. It's in my DNA.

There is no middle ground in Hollywood, you're a failure or you're a success. That mentality is wild.

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.

I was raised not to be afraid to show emotion or imagination.

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

In 22 years of acting, I've only done two movies where I, personally, kill people. The Coens called me the Spanish Ballerina on (the No Country For Old Men) set, because every time I had the gun, when they called cut, I'd give it back and say, 'Take this s**t out of my hands!' There were laughing, like they couldn't believe I was supposed to be the villain.

My first part was in a film where I played a sadomasochist who killed people and created fun orgies. I'm a method actor. I went to every orgy in the world.

Only unfulfilled love can be romantic

I don't know how to drive a car.

I truly don't have any formula for the choices I make.

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 cant be.

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.

[That night] I was sitting by Jack Nicholson with my long list of thanks, and I said, `I'm so nervous. I don't know what to say if I go up there.' He said, `Don't get emotional, drop the names, and dedicate it to your mother.'

Many people out there don't have a choice, in choosing their friends and the people they're being manipulated by.

I'm getting so old - it's more uncomfortable to do those scenes now than when I was 20. I mean, I don't have a big problem with nudity on screen. But usually the days when you do those naked love scenes are the weirdest ones on set. Everyone is uncomfortable. You're like, 'Hi. How are you?' Then the next minute you're with an actress who you don't know and you're pretending to make love to her in front of all the crew. The acting challenge is pretending things are OK.

I wanted to become a painter for a while. I think it was because I was lazy.

When you're working with the best, it helps you to be good because then you are focusing on what you have to do.

I'm not the kind of actor that gets crazy with [directors'] names, what draws me toward a project is the material itself.

As an actor, you can't judge. A great actress from Spain said, "We, the actors, are lawyers of the characters we play. We have to defend them, no matter what."

I think the most difficult love begins with one's self. How you treat yourself is something you bring to your relationships.