Quotes from Alicia Vikander

My mum used to tell me when I was a kid that I had to go to bed at 7.30 P.M., and when I'd ask why, she'd say, 'Well, you do get a bit grumpy when you don't have routines'. Then I realised, when I was a bit older, that's actually true.

Everyone surrounding you has gone through similar things. The search for love or the desire to have a family or the loss of a child.

This worldwide spread of recognition is insane. I was brought up in a small country. If you made a Swedish film that just got into a film festival somewhere, that was like the biggest thing you could wish for.

I love to see how far you're able to go, both in skills but also emotionally how far I can push myself.

I love when I am outside my comfort zone.

I love New York, and I would love to try to live here for a while if I ever got the chance, but it's also extremely hectic. I don't think I would cope with that.

I still love to see the ballet. And I love to boogie.

I love films that make me react emotionally and physically when you walk out of the cinema. Two of my favorite films however have got to be 'The Tree Of Life' and 'The Piano Teacher,' which also stars one of my favourite actresses Isabelle Huppert.

I endured quite a few injuries when I was younger and had my first surgery on my foot when I was 15. But I love dancing. 'Anna Karenina' was great for me as it meant I could combine the two and I actually went back and did some classes.

Being in ballet school and being in leotards in front of a mirror I don't know how many hours a day was quite tough.

It's a mixed feeling when everything you've ever wanted in making films is coming true, and yet you feel scared because it's happening all at once. Suddenly you're in rooms with people you've looked up to for years, the Judi Denches. You wonder if you're good, if you have what it takes.

My dad has children by four different mothers.

In film, you get the license to try and go for emotions that you normally try to keep away from you.

I do work very hard. I have been very colored by that education. I spent six days a week, seven hours a day training. That will always be the foundation of my work.

I love doing interviews that are about work that I do, films that I make. I am not very interested in the rest. I think I have always been quite reserved and a bit frightened of that whole thing.

I push myself hard. I don't like pain, exactly, but as a ballerina, I lived in constant pain. At ballet school in Stockholm, I remember we had a locker where if someone had been to the doctor and gotten painkillers, we divided them among us. In a sense, we were all addicted.

Both my mom and my dad have always included me in intelligent conversations about people, about characters, about how people work. My dad and my mom still read all scripts that I find interesting. I send them an e-mail, and I'm like, 'Okay, I have my eye on this,' or whatever.

I guess, like most foreigners, when you're away, you see your own culture being even more strange. But where I come from and my roots mean a lot. I miss my family and my friends. Something I've realized as I've been traveling is that it's more about the actual people than the actual place.

People always think I'm not scared. I've noticed that whenever I feel stressed, everyone thinks I'm fine, and later, it's like, 'I was not fine.'

Jewellery is a way of making a very simple outfit something you can wear to go out.

I like not knowing about my favourite actresses and actors. I love seeing Meryl Streep up there and knowing so little about who she is outside of what she's playing on screen.

My Mother is an actress, so it's always been a part of my life.

All the parts I've enjoyed playing the most I didn't know about until they appeared, or it was something I read and fell in love with.

I can say the one good thing is for every year where I grow up, I am kinder to myself, and I would say to the younger version of me, 'I love my body, and I have learnt to stop looking in the mirror at the things I want to change.'