Christian Bale

(revealing he almost turned down the chance to play Batman due to the bat suit) Christian: I was standing on the back lot where they were creating the suit, and I had a few minutes to myself, staring up close in the mirror, just thinking, 'This isn't going to work. I'm claustrophobic, I can't breathe, I'm getting a headache already, and this is all going to go very badly.

(about "The Dark Knight" co-star Heath Ledger) Christian: He did a phenomenal job. It was a real joy working with the man. It was a joy knowing him, as well. I liked him a great deal and I liked also how seriously he took his work.

Christian: Trying too hard to be sexy is the worst thing in the world a woman can do.

(revealing he did not read the script before accepting his role in "I'm Not There") Christian: I saw it was completely chaotic and confusing, I didn't bother reading it, I read little bits and said, 'Yeah sure'. I had people teach me how to sing and play guitar and all that.

Christian: I mean, first of all, let me say whichever superhero first came up with the idea of wearing a cape, he wasn't really onto anything good. The number of times I'm treading on that damn thing or I throw a punch and it ends up covering my whole head. It's really not practical.

Christian: I'd love to say I was completely impervious to anybody's opinion, but that just ain't the truth. Of course it matters. After all, what am I paid to do? I'm paid to essentially make an ass out of myself if needed. And occasionally in doing that you're going to fall flat on your face.

Christian: I will never say never, but I will say never to doing the more typical romantic comedies. You know, unless I'm getting audited and I'm on the street and I desperately need some dough and that's the only thing that I'm getting. In terms of the romantic kind of lead, I just never enjoy those movies very much. Maybe they'll come to interest me more as I get older. I doubt it, but maybe. Romantic comedies tend to be, for me, an oxymoron.

Christian: I really do get a kick out of acting when it's done really well. When there's a feeling on the set and working in tandem with everybody and you just know that everything worked exactly how you wanted it to. That's the fantastic part. In everyday life, my wife is the most wonderful. We're in love with each other beyond belief.

Christian: I never want to turn something down because I'm afraid to do it, because of some idea of image or whatever. That was never anything I set out to do. In fact, the opposite, I always want to confuse people in terms of any kind of image and be unpredictable in any kind of movie I make. I never want to feel that I'm playing it safe.

(on his growing fame) Christian: I don't want to think about that. The only thing I want to think about is if it can help me get movies like The Machinist made quicker. I have this theory that, depending on your attitude, your life doesn't have to become this ridiculous charade that it seems so many people end up living.

Christian: There have been many times when you spend a number of months and the finished product is not what you wanted to see. And Batman Begins was what I wanted to see.

Christian: Batman took 10 months to film, and by the time I stopped working on it, it took a long time before my English accent came out again. I was actually having to try for it.

(on different styles of acting) Christian: There are movies that require fantasy and slightly more fantastical acting. Lines that are good for certain movies, in real life circumstances, would be absolutely unbelievable things to really say, and you would look at these people like they're freaks for conversing that way. But somehow for certain styles of movies, it works, and it seems fine.

(about his film, "Batman Begins") Christian: I think that we're doing something different enough in the fact that it is a prequel. We don't have to adhere to anything that's already been laid down in the movies.

Christian: There's such ups and downs. You may think that you've kind of found a spot and a groove and it seems to be working. And then you go in the next day and you'll just be terrible and try to struggle and wonder why it's just not happening – and you can't sometimes figure out why at all.

(on his growing fame) Christian: It just so happened I had been trying to get money together for a movie that myself and another director had been trying to do for a while, and lo and behold! I got cast as Batman, and bang – we get the money. You have opportunities; doors are opened for you, and not just to continue to do big movies. You could do whatever movies you wish to do because people are going to be more convinced that 'Okay, it's a better gamble now.'

(about his "Batman" costume) Christian: You stick it on, you get hot, you sweat and you get a headache in the cowl. But I'm not going to bitch about it because I get to play Batman.

(after being approached to star in "Reign of Fire") Christian: I had reservations about making a movie like this. Initially I was very surprised they were interested in me for it because I didn't expect that. It was an attraction for me because I hope that I can always do something that isn't predictable.

Christian: I don't personally look to my own life experiences for answers about how to play a scene. For me, that's some kind of bastardization of your own experiences, you know what I mean? I've had some painful experiences in my life, but I feel like I'm trivializing them by using them for a scene in a movie. I don't want to do that. It just makes me feel kind of dirty for having done that.

(on how well "American Psycho" was received) Christian: A lot of people seem to think that in terms of box office, it didn't do very well. But it actually did -- this is a movie that cost seven million Canadian dollars, I think, and it got like nine million on its first weekend in the States. If you compare it to Erin Brockovich, or whatever, you say, "ooh, that didn't do so well." But in terms of how much it cost to what it's making back, it did fantastically.

(about his fight to keep his part in "American Psycho") Christian: I'd been involved with this from the beginning, before there was financing, before there was anything. It was a genuine filmmaking experience for me, rather than just being an actor for hire. I just felt that, if I quit that easily, I was never going to really get any fulfilment out of making movies. I really wanted to do this.

Christian: When it comes to films, people often don't differentiate between the message of a bad central character and the message of the film itself. They are two separate things.

(about Batman) Christian: What the hell kind of man decides to dress up as a bat and run around the city? There's got to be something a little bit loose in there.

Christian(about his teeth): I'm English. Our dentistry is not world famous. But I made sure I got moldings of my old teeth beforehand because I miss them.