I love creating things, especially out of metal. There's something truly satisfying about shaping a piece of metal and seeing the impurities peeling away as you weld it into your chosen design.

I'm proud of Lord of the Rings. I think it's a once in a lifetime role, and a once in a lifetime film. It was made with so much care and passion and meticulous detail and everybody was so behind it.

Listen to people and treat people as you find them. There's an inherent goodness in most people. Don't pre-judge people - that was me Mam's advice anyway.

I sometimes find that playing the bad guy, or villains, or psychopaths tend to be much more psychologically rewarding. And you can really push it, you can push the limits, and get away with it.

If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it.

My family thought the fascination with acting was just another fad.

Lord of the Rings was just so much enjoyment. It was over about the space of a year that I was filming. It's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done, so emotional.

I'd been trying for a while to get parts that weren't just the English bad guy, so it was quite refreshing to be playing someone who was a compassionate, decent guy.

I'm still Sean that me mates went to school with, not Sean the film star. And that's the way I prefer to be.

It was such an interesting character and the film really explored his friendship with Bond and how it all went wrong, so it was a very personal journey for both characters.

To be honest, you have to do a big Hollywood film to get enough money to do a good independent film!

Life should be lived more from the heart than the head.

No one can know your strength and weakness better than yourself.

Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own - but that we could never have described on our own.

If you look at my eyes when I'm dancing, you'll see that glazed look.

A person becomes great not be sitting on some high seat, but through higher qualities. Can a crow become an eagle by simply sitting on the top of a palatial building?

The stairway is not a thing of gleaming strands a radiant evanescence for angels' feet that only glance in their tread, and need not touch the stone.

You have to smile after making trouble. This way you get in less trouble.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

... by chance you will say, but chance only favors the mind which is prepared.

It's a bit like a fledgeling duck, finding your flippers.