Quotes from Michael Sheen

Part of the fun of life is interacting with people and not knowing what the truth is inside. Letting them reveal that to you is what binds you to people.

My tragedy is that all I want is a dog, and yet I have been cursed with cats all my life.

A lot of the times when I've auditioned for parts in America, the answer is, 'Sorry, we need a bigger name.'

I've always found it hard to say sorry.

When you look at all the miracles attributed to Jesus, they're all about change.

On the one hand Twitter gives you the opportunity to engage with people, which is great, but on the other there are people who feel they can say whatever they want, put poison out there, really, without fear of any repercussions.

I think being a parent is the most challenging thing you do. That's why we're here. It's at the heart of what it is to be a human being. It's the ultimate experience because it questions everything about who you are. But it's difficult.

I'm always aware that there are, broadly speaking, two different ways to act: there is acting, and then there's being, and I'm always more interested in that.

As a general thing, I've always been drawn to characters who appear to be one thing on the surface, but are actually something else underneath.

In some ways any film that you do has an artificiality about it. Even when you're doing the most kitchen-sinky, gritty, realistic scene you've still got 50 people standing around watching you with cameras and lights and things.

When I'm in America, I like to be near the sea, listen to music, watch films, read and write.

I don't do the whole L.A. nightlife thing.

'Hamlet' is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what's real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.

I always say if I'm not good at something it's just because I've not had time to focus on it... it's just uncrafted, like a slab of rock that contains the statue of David within it.

Normal people - i.e., people who aren't actors - are the most bizarre people you can ever come across. I'll talk to someone and come away thinking, 'They are clinically insane.'

I was obsessed with football when I was growing up.

I'm a big fan of vampire movies generally and that sort of tradition of characters.

I think when you work on a Woody Allen film the actors become a real company, probably more than on any other film.

When you come to actually act, it's a game. It may be a very serious game, but it's still a game. If you lose that sense of play, the work suffers.

Although my family - parents and sister - all work in the personnel management business, their real passion is performing, amateur operatic societies and so on.

I've always loved animation and animated films.

It's weird that I've ended up playing so many real live people, because I was never any good at impersonations at school.

You know, we're each the hero of our own story and we perceive what's going on around us, and especially in a relationship, from the kind of viewpoint of, 'Well, this is my story, and I'm the hero of that, and I justify what I do around it.'

I live a very Kenneth Williams-like existence.