Quotes from Christian Bale

Art is something to be proud of. Art is no compromise.

How serious can a movie about time-traveling robots be? You want it to be cool and fun.

I will never say never, but I will say never to doing the more typical romantic comedies. You know, unless I'm getting audited and I'm on the street and I desperately need some dough and that's the only thing that I'm getting.

In terms of the romantic kind of lead, I just never enjoy those movies very much. Maybe they'll come to interest me more as I get older. I doubt it, but maybe. Romantic comedies tend to be, for me, an oxymoron.

My dad was the biggest influence on my life because he was never boring.

Look, I've got incredible pride for my family. I've absolutely fallen into that cliche of a dad who could just happily talk about my daughter endlessly.

The only thing I would unequivocally say is that I have never had any interest in romantic comedy I just couldn't do it. I think I'd be terrible.

I met my grandfather just before he died, and it was the first time that I had seen Dad with a relative of his. It was interesting to see my own father as a son and the body language and alteration in attitude that comes with that, and it sort of changed our relationship for the better.

And being as I'm somebody who loves movies like The Machinist, I also love going along to big mass entertainment movies. I get in the mood for all kinds of movies, and so I like to try each of them.

Directors tell me I should direct because the questions I am asking are the questions that they are asking rather than the questions that they expect to come from an actor. I do get that a lot. But there's a great difference between being able to stand there and make suggestions when it ultimately doesn't stop at you versus when it does. I think my issue with directing would probably be that I am kind of a loner. I like being responsible for myself.

It's the actors who are prepared to make fools of themselves who are usually the ones who come to mean something to the audience.

the art of survival is a story that never ends

Being boring is a sin. It doesn't matter if you mess up; at least you're trying something different

I just wanted to fade into the background. Be invisible. Disappear.

I've had some painful experiences in my life, but I feel like I'm trivializing them by using them for a scene in a movie. I don't want to do that. It just makes me feel kind of dirty for having done that.

I want to do good work. I want the opportunity to work with good people, and the only way I'm gonna do that is to commit 110% - you get out what you put in.

Working out is incredibly boring. I swear it's true that the bigger your muscles get, the fewer brain cells you have.

If you're smart you're just gonna be all about the work. But as a young person, you want to going out to clubs and doing all the stuff. I'm just glad I survived it.

I went backwards and forwards over it until I was 22. And then in the past few years I began to say to myself, OK, look, I'm not messing around. This is something I want to attack, instead of thinking, I'll just see what happens with it.

The risk element only came from acknowledging other people's attitudes toward it, and realizing that they considered it to be a risk for me to do.

The point of having a director is that they make the final decision; it's their point of view, they set the rhythm and they make the final decisions.

An actor should never be larger than the film he's in.

Sometimes the truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people have got to have their faith rewarded.

I'm an actor I'm not a politician. I always kick myself when I talk too much about family, or personal things.