Jude Law

Jude: (on why he is glad to be losing his sex symbol status to younger actors) If I have a look around at the moment I feel great relief because finally others are entering the limelight. Men like Robert Pattinson must now play the Adonis. For me it was always a restraint, a restriction. My goal was always to be recognised as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society. When you suddenly appear on the scene and you are the new face, everything centres on you. I experienced this in my mid-20s and I found it rather hard.

Jude: (on completing the United Nations' security test prior to visiting Afghanistan in 2007) I was made to do the United Nations' security test. That was quite an eye opener because we had to go through a mock kidnap and hostage profile including being broken down under interrogation. That really raised my eyebrows.

Jude: (on cheating on ex-fiancée Sienna Miller) There's no regret. You can't regret. I mean, I've felt regret but I've also refused to allow regret to sow a seed and live in me because I don't believe it. You feel it, it's like guilt, it's like jealousy, it's like all those horrible things and... You've just got to snip them and get them out, because they're no good. Because if you regret, in a way, have you learnt and moved on?

Jude: (thanking the UK press for helping him change his ways after they exposed his affair with his children's nanny) In a way it was like washing your laundry in public and, yep, there you go, you've seen my underwear," he said. "And now I feel like there's nothing left, you've seen it all and I can get on.

Jude: (On being cleared of claims he attacked a photographer in fall 2007) The police have told me that they and the CPS have examined the photographer's allegation extremely carefully and made the decision that there is no further action to be taken. Of course I am delighted to be vindicated.

Jude: (on when he was arrested for attacking a photographer) This chap basically set about provoking me and ended up swinging a camera at me and it all got a little nasty. We had a little bit of a set to and I go home, and next thing I know there's a knock on the door and it's the police and apparently he's asking for my arrest. They're really embarrassed because they know this thing is a set up.

Jude: (on his movie "Alfie") It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. But part of the reason you embark on a creative journey is to sometimes fall flat.

Jude: (on the documentary for Peace Day) Afghanistan will be the focal point for the second film, so it seemed important that Jeremy (Gilley) also have a sounding board, a third-party perspective on his trip. This film is about documenting and seeing how Peace Day can save lives. Wouldn't it be a wonderful international message to come from a country which is perceived as a country purely of conflict, that this message of peace can sing out of it?

Jude: I'm only wanted by directors for the image I give off, and it makes me angry. I always wanted to be an actor and not a beauty pageant winner.

Jude: (when receiving the chevalier of the Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres medal) I am speechless. My mum and dad have lived in France for 15 years so really it is a country I share as my home.

Jude: (on stage acting) There is only so long you can go from film to film to film. Theatre is a more raw experience. For an actor, a live audience is creative inspiration.

Jude: As a culture, the West has found itself in a strange, not battle of the genders, but battle in one's own gender. There's been so much equalizing that we've all kind of lost a little sense of who and what we're about, and a certain amount of definitions of who and what being a woman and being a man is about. It's almost like a murky middle ground that sometimes diffuses the definition and out of that has indeed spawned, in certain areas, misogynism.

Jude: The only film I ever made for money was something called Music From Another Room, which I really didn't like.

Jude: The truth is, one can work for another ten years and be playing parts, pushing yourself as hard as you can, and you are still accused of that. You're still tainted with that brush. I'm not called Jude Law, I have three names; I'm called 'Hunk Jude Law' or 'Heartthrob Jude Law'. In England anyway, that's my full name. That's the cheap language that's thrown around, that sums you up in one little bracket. It doesn't look at your life. But if one looks beyond, there is actually a little bit more.

Jude: Bosie [from the movie Wilde] was the first part I was ever offered, which I suppose is sort of an insult because he's just the nastiest bastard!

Jude: I don't want to do anything that I'm not passionate about.

Jude: (about the paparazzi) I throw root vegetables at them.

Jude: I would never know how to sell myself as a sex symbol. That's not how I'm programmed.

Jude: I've always thought Prince Charming in Cinderella was the most boring role; I'd rather be the Wicked Witch.

Jude: I honestly have no interest in celebrity whatsoever. If anything, I always cringe at it because it takes away from what I am, which is an actor who wants to be better and do better things.

Jude: Success, and even life itself, wouldn't be worth anything if I didn't have my wife and children by my side. They mean everything to me.

Jude: I think it's a bigger risk following a part that plays up your looks than it is to try and carve out a career as an actor.

Jude: (on July 18, 2005, Jude issued a public apology to his fiancé for having an affair with his children's nanny, Daisy Wright, in New Orleans.) I want to publicly apologize to Sienna and our respective families for the pain that I have caused. There is no defence for my actions which I sincerely regret and I ask that you respect our privacy at this very difficult time.

Jude: (about the movies he chooses to star in, that flop) They are all films I like but no-one else seems to.

Jude: (on being considered a "Casanova") Maybe when I was in my late adolescence, I might have broken the hearts of a few teenage girls, but I quickly grew out of that phase. People forget that I met Sadie when I was barely 20 and we only separated three years ago. I was never a Casanova accumulating conquests. I never had any confidence with women. I can't remember my first date - I think it was probably at a swimming baths when I was six!

Jude: (on being molded by Hollywood into the British Tom Cruise) I'm not Tom Cruise. Very few British actors are. If you look at the body of work I've done it's pretty obvious I'm not going to make a "Mission: Impossible."

Jude: (about now his affair apparently "shattered" his clean-cut image) All the c**p that happened to me came out of a decision that was regrettable. People say, 'Oh, you're not so golden now.' I never said I was golden anyway.

Jude: (about the cheating scandal) I didn't want to hurt anyone. I've apologized to the people I think matter in that situation. There's not really an awful lot I can do or say. But you can't run away. You have to take it on the chin and learn somehow to hold you head up high and face up to it. You can't spend your life apologizing. You can hold you hands up and say, 'I f**ked up.' You can do everything in your power to make that pain better. But what kind of person would you be to then spend the rest of your life torturing yourself. It feels like the cards are settling and I'm getting a sense of calm in personal and public life. So things are good. I'm more cynical, but I've also learnt to be more bulletproof.

Jude: (On his experience filming "Enemy at the Gates") There were dynamite explosions going on all the time. In one scene a lump of shrapnel flew into my head, but it was nothing, just a scratch. A little blood is part and parcel of the experience.

Jude: (On his flick "A.I.") The film is a huge lesson for parents, an enticement to embrace the things they're responsible for, the things they love... I think there's also an element to this film that recognizes the wisdom in youth, the purity of the wisdom in their innocence. That's something I've certainly learned from my children.

Jude: My only obligation is to keep myself and other people guessing.

Jude: When you step back and watch people, you realize that we use every single body part. Movement, dance--I find it genius because it's ultimate expression, really.

Jude: You heard it from the heart, you saw it in their eyes. Then I got used to the fact that I couldn't feel my fingers and my feet. That for me was the essence of the battle.

Jude: I'm happiest at home hanging out with the kids... Having a family has been my saving grace because I don't work back to back on anything or I'd drive myself to an early grave with guilt and worry for my family, whom I'd never see.

Jude: London is my home... I know what's right and wrong here, and it's nice to have somewhere familiar to go back to.

Jude: His days as leading man could be over.

Jude: (On his upbringing) I'm incredibly boring; I had a very happy childhood. I never starved, nor did I have a silver spoon in my mouth. I'm one of those terribly middle-of-the-road, British middle class, South London gents.

Jude: (on his son Rudy's arrival) It's not that my children weren't whole before Rudy arrived, but it's almost as though they were waiting for the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle. They've become sort of a team.

Jude: It was the shaving that bothered me the most. I'm not a great fan of shaving and I had to be really clean-shaven, hands, head, hairline, all the fluff off my face, everything except my eyebrows, so this sheen, this kind of polish they used on me, would stick.

Jude: I suppose I'm intrigued with the bad traits of society, because I'm a part of society, and the bad traits pose the dangerous questions for our future.

Jude: People seem more interested in setting someone up as this bad person; that disheartens me a little bit. We all mess up, we're all capable of upsetting each other, but equally, we're capable of making it better, of healing wounds.

Jude: Face it, I didn't become famous until I took my clothes off.

Jude: (about the jokes Chris Rock told about him at the 2005 Oscars) At first I laughed because I didn't think he knew who I was. Then I got angry as his remarks became personal. My friends were livid. It's unfortunate I had five or six films come out at the same time.

Jude: I'm kind of ashamed to be a celebrity. I don't understand wanting to read about other people's dirty laundry. I think celebrity is the biggest red herring society has ever pulled on itself.

Jude: We all have times when we go home at night and pull out our hair and feel misunderstood and lonely and like we're falling. I think the brain is such that there is always going to be something missing.