Quotes from Rhys Ifans

My work is my way of expressing myself without being arrested.

I work hard and I party hard. When I go to work, I know what I am doing and I do it to the best of my abilities. When I party, I take exactly the same rule book with me.

In a sense, I feel a lot more an outsider in Los Angeles than I did in Newfoundland.

I'm always flabbergasted and overwhelmed by the audience a film reaches.

I am an artisan. I only became an artist when people watch what I do. That is when it becomes art.

The strange thing is, if I was speaking to drama students about the thing that you should do if you're lucky enough to know or to meet the character that you're playing, I'd say, 'It's obvious: you quiz them diligently about their experience.'

When you act, you've got to be like a poet or a musician. It's not about evidence before court. It's not a forensic subject. It's poetry; it's a completely different place.

You look at any culture, and prohibition has invariably been an unmitigated failure. It is just idiotic to criminalise any substance, I think.

After you have been incarcerated for so long, whatever story is told in the aftermath is beautiful.

I'm becoming more indulgent and less giving as an actor as I get older. I'm immersing myself more in roles emotionally.

We're in an age of enlightenment, and we have a choice as a society which path to take.

What was extraordinary about Occupy London was that it was a village with a louder voice than one of the biggest cities of the world.

The majority of comic book villains are pure evil, but Curt Connors is an exception. Curt Connors is a good man who initially wants to save the world, but he gets hungry and greedy and reckless, and he pays the price for that.

Villains are fun. I think the important thing in playing them is that they don't see themselves as villains. It lets you be a little more expansive.

I don't sit around with other actors and talk about the pain and the magic of acting.

Howard Marks is a great friend and a great Welshman.