Daniel Craig

Daniel: I'd always wanted to be an actor. My earliest memories are of dressing up, trying to get a lot of attention. I'd love to act, and I come from an artistic family in some respects. It's a great outlet, and at it's very best it sort of changes people's opinions about things, and attitudes towards things, whatever you do it's political, and everything you do should be political- you should be trying to make a point about something. And if you can manage to do that, then you're succeeding as an artist.

Daniel: I find it very easy playing Bond. I think he's hilarious. He gets himself into some extraordinarily funny situations.

Daniel: (revealing he will have plastic surgery in the future to cover injuries sustained during filming for Quantum of Solace) It's what happens when you do something like this. I got tagged in a fight sequence and needed eight stitches. Plastic surgery? Give it five years.

Daniel: I've never really had a desire to do Shakespeare. For me, it's just too many lines.

Daniel: (on Nicole Kidman) She turns me on. Not in a sordid, horrible way. Well, come to think of it...

Daniel: (on the movie Casino Royale) It's not like I was trying to be sexy but I had to get fit because I had to be able to do stunts. Also I wanted that, if Bond took his clothes off, he looked like a man who did what he did, which was kill people for a living. I thought the only way to do that was to work out and get fit and buff and get physically into shape. Thank God I did, because I did as many of the stunts as I could - I got injured, I got hurt, but I never missed a day filming. Touch wood, I never will. It was important to do all that, yeah.

Daniel: (on his Bond action figure) [Laughs] It's home at the moment, sitting on my kitchen table. I don't think you can ever be happy with it - he scowls a lot! He may need to soften up a little bit.

Daniel: (on the criticism from Bond fans when he was first cast) Well, I get it. There's a passion about this because people take it very close to their hearts and they have grown up with James Bond - and so have I. But I was being criticised before I had presented anything, so it was name calling. I just had to be quiet and say, "Forget it. I can't think about it. I have to move forward and concentrate on getting this job right."

Daniel: (About meeting Steven Spielberg for the first time) Terrifying. Well, not terrifying, it was actually great for me to meet Spielberg, I just had one of those phone calls like, Steven Spielberg wants to meet you, and I thought "f*ck off, you've got to be joking." Next thing I'm on a train to Paris. I went into the meeting and walked out and went, "that went quite well."

Fred Topel: The minimum bid for your autograph is $150. How does that make you feel? Daniel: I don't care, really. You'll be mistaking me for one of those actors who gives a f*** [about status].