Quotes from Stellan Skarsgard

I reflect over my actions; I don't dwell on them.

I've made six films for Disney, and they have a clause in their contracts called the morality clause that I've always refused to sign.

Even the most despicable person is still a human being.

All directors are control freaks and very obsessive. I get the feeling that directors as kids, they all have had a childhood with not too much contact with other kids. They constructed their own reality and they continue to do it. It's a funny breed, directors.

I mean... mankind has for hundreds of years known that torture is not a very smart way to get information. It's horrible that we're going back to medieval times.

I did a Norwegian film called 'Insomnia' that was remade and that was a good remake by a good director, so I'm honoured.

The countries where you have the most fear of immigrants are the countries where you have the least immigration.

I am indeed a fan of John le Carre's novels.

I've worked with Lars von Trier on many films, and there's always a female character that's like an open wound - everything just pours out of this person.

Norway is a small country, about half the size of Sweden, but it has a very good film climate because they have municipal cinemas, so even in the smallest towns you have a cinema that shows art house films from all over the world.

I'm not a signing or dancing man.

I go where I think I can enjoy myself. Sometimes it's on a big movie, and sometimes it's even on a silly movie.

It's fun to play characters with a past, but it's also fun to play any role that is what I would call a 'pressure cooker' kind of character, where the lid is on, and it's left to simmer throughout the movie.

I was the eldest of five children, and although I never saw myself as any kind of leader, as the eldest, like it or not, you have some power inherent in that position.

It's not in the tradition: not even the schoolkids have hot lunches in Norway. They bring a couple of sandwiches from home.

One of the beauties of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is the very delicate and strange relationship between the two main characters.

Kenneth Branagh is one of the funniest directors on the set. You laugh a lot. He's very skillful.

I said yes to 'Nymphomaniac' before it was written.

I wanted to be a man who travelled the world to make peace. I didn't realise that most diplomats are megaphones for their governments.

I do believe in humanism, and I believe that we should treat each other with respect and care and look after each other. All human beings should have an equal chance to survive in society, and inequality is a big problem in society.

For 'Avengers,' in the Albuquerque desert, we shot New York there. And I was standing on a platform, nine feet high... and it was the rooftop of a skyscraper in New York. And it was all desert around me!

I love having 30 shots of every scene.

Most of my acting in general is about what's going on in the head, and the lines are just something that comes out.

From my second son Gustav, I bought one of his complaints for 200 kroner. He was complaining that he was a middle child - he wasn't the beloved first child, and he wasn't the cute little youngest child. So I said, can I use that same wording in a film? And he said yeah. So I bought it from him.