Javier Bardem Quotes

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

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.

Celebrity is very weird.

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.

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

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

I don't know how to drive a car.

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

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.

Really, I don't see this heart-throb thing at all.

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 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 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.

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

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.

I'm happily married.

Life is not perfect.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 fact that I like to make characters doesn't mean that I like to watch my characters being made, my performance.

Only unfulfilled love can be romantic

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.

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.

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.

You want to do your job well so that people in the future say, 'OK, he's not bad, let's hire him.'

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

There is no good side to celebrity.

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

I don't believe in God, I only believe in Al Pacino, and that's the truth.

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.