Michael Fassbender

“When I was four, I just wanted to drive, I collected toy cars. Where does that sort of thing come from? In hindsight you go, 'Oh, liked it because of this.' Maybe it's just the wheel.”

“'Hunger' definitely changed my life, in terms of being recognized by filmmakers, since that was very much a filmmakers' film.”

“The arts are very alive in Ireland, so that had its influence on me. But I consider myself European, really.”

“I don't think peroxide-blond hair is a beneficial look for me.”

“Even if I'm playing a superhero, it has to be steeped in reality.”

“I guess in the independent market, I'd be getting offers, but in terms of big studio films, I still have to audition. I don't think my name is that well-known, I don't have much of a following to guarantee box office success yet.”

“Why not provoke some thought and get people talking about things? I like characters that are flawed because we all are. When people break up in a script, you think, Oh, right, there must be tears shed here. But maybe the fact of the matter is that they're both laughing.”

“Nobody wants to hear Metallica at lunchtime.”

“I've always been more inclined to go out to work than carry on with academic studies.”

“I'm always interested in trying to investigate different personalities. I want to keep myself guessing and keep the fear element alive, so that I don't get too comfortable.”

“Everything I put my name to and take part in, I want to be good. That's not saying it will always happen. But I want to make bold choices.”

“You know, it's amazing. I don't even have a car, would you believe it? I had a motorbike and it got stolen last year. So I've got to buy another one of those, I suppose. I can treat myself to that.”

“You use words like 'introvert' and 'extrovert,' various traits of a personality. A lot of that stuff, we used in drama school, and that was kind of interesting, to realize my teachers sort of ripped off a lot of Jung. And how much of it is part of our society now, these phrases, introvert and extrovert, where it actually came from.”

“There's so much going on in the world. There's so much information being thrown at us - so many things are being sold to us, and we're being told how we should appear and how to be more successful, blah, blah, blah. How does that manifest itself? In the pressures, the stress, this need to escape.”

“I came to Los Angeles and did auditions for television. I made a terrible mess of most of them and I was quite intimidated. I felt very embarrassed and went back to London. I got British television jobs intermittently between the ages of 23 and 27, but it was very patchy.”