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.

I don’t know how to drive a car.

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

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.

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.

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?’

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

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.

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?’

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.