Some things just come without any real understanding. I dont bother to — Russell Crowe

"Im fundamentally quite shy, so that thing of taking on another character is quite a liberating thing to do if youre a shy person, because within that character framework you can now go to all these other places. [pauses] And I never found another job that I was actually that good at."

"Its really hard to explain, because its a fucking prick of a job, you know? Particularly when you get successful with it.... People dont understand why your life suddenly changed when, hey, to them its fucking ten bucks at the movies, its over in a couple of hours. They dont understand the prep, they dont understand the real physical shit that you put yourself through. I mean, the last movies an example— shoulder surgery partway through preparation. And its a $100 million train, man, and Im the fucking guy that drives the train. And Ive got to get back on that train and make sure that this thing is completed."

"People accuse me of being arrogant all the time. Im not arrogant, Im focused. I dont make demands. I dont tell you how it should be. Ill give you fucking options, and its up to you to select or throw em away. That should be the headline: If youre insecure, dont fucking call."

"I get a very deep sense that the generation after Generation X is a very conservative generation, and Im not sure they understand the commitment part of what I do. Im not sure if well ever be able to regain that ground.... I quite often feel like Im the youngest of the old guys, where Ive got some really old-fashioned philosophies about whats credible and whats not.... Suddenly, someone like me seems like a dinosaur from a different age, but I hope its the opposite of that. I hope Im at the forefront of thinking and itll all come back to that at some point."

"Ive always had a thing about being accused of something when Im not guilty of it, you know? That goes right back to a primary school thing. Its the thing that scares me the most— being blamed for something that I didnt do... And theres that "If you get accused of something and you get angry, then you must be guilty."

"Russell Crowe, an unofficial site"

"In the life of each of us, I said to myself, there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret or secret happiness."

"Chess for me is not a game, but an art. Yes, and I take upon myself all those responsibilities which an art imposes on its adherents."

"On the platform a group of peasants were standing in military formation five soldiers armed with rifles guarding them. There were men and women, each carrying a bundle. Somehow, lining them up in military formation made the thing grotesque—wretched looking peasants, half-starved, tattered clothes, frightened faces, standing to attention. These may be kulaks, I thought, but if so they have made a mighty poor thing of exploiting their fellows. I hung about looking on curiously, wanting to ask where they were to be sent—to the north to cut timber, somewhere else to dig canals—until one of the guards told me sharply to take myself off."

"We foreign journalists in Moscow used to amuse ourselves, as a matter of fact, by competing with one another as to who could wish upon one of these intelligentsia visitors to the USSR the most outrageous fantasy…One story I floated myself, for which I received considerable acclaim, was that the huge queues outside food shops came about because the Soviet workers were so ardent in building Socialism that they just wouldnt rest, and the only way the government could get them to rest for even two or three hours was organizing a queue for them to stand in. I laugh at it all now, but at the time you can imagine what a shock it was to someone like myself, who had been brought up to regard liberal intellectuals as the samurai, the absolute elite, of the human race, to find that they could be taken in by deceptions which a half-witted boy would see through in an instant…I could never henceforth regard the intelligentsia as other than credulous fools who nonetheless became the medias prophetic voices, their heirs and successors remaining so still."

"Is he the best in the world? He might not get the attention of (Lionel) Messi and Ronaldo but yes, I think he just might be.If you dont have a player like Steven Gerrard, who is the engine room, it can affect the whole team.When we were winning league titles and European Cups at Real, I always said Claude Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself, (Luis) Figo or Raul would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard. He has great passing ability, can tackle and scores goals, but most importantly he gives the players around him confidence and belief. You cant learn that -- players like him are just born with that presence."

"Say anything you want against The Seventh Seal. My fear of death — this infantile fixation of mine — was, at that moment, overwhelming. I felt myself in contact with death day and night, and my fear was tremendous. When I finished the picture, my fear went away. I have the feeling simply of having painted a canvas in an enormous hurry — with enormous pretension but without any arrogance. I said, Here is a painting; take it, please."