Anything I am and anything I hope to be, I have my mom to thank. Family Circle, 4-18-06

It kind of went downhill, I was smoking a bit of reef. You know, you roll your first joint, drink your first beer and discover the girls and, well, that was it. I loved football, but I couldn`t make the training any more - on his football aspirations as a youth

I work my arse off. I`m never late, ask anyone. I`m only 27. I don`t feel like a big star. I feel neither the pressure nor the grandeur of my situation, you know. I think I`m still trying to find my feet as an actor. And I know it ain`t brain surgery, but it confuses me and it comes between me and my sleep a lot.

I think I was 8 or 9 when I had a f*cking mad thing for Marilyn Monroe. I used to leave Smarties, the Irish equivalent of M&M`s, under my pillow with a little note saying, `I know you`re dead, but these are very f*cking tasty, and you should come have a few. I won`t tell anyone.`

It`s not that I`m stupid. I just don`t think sometimes.

[on physical training for film roles] "I find it the most tedious waste of life. It`s so boring. I`d prefer to be sitting in a pub with a few strangers talkin` shit than looking at myself in the mirror runnin` on the treadmill."

It all goes back to [Joel Schumacher]. I wouldn`t have done Phone Booth (2002) without him. I wouldn`t be doing Hart`s War (2002). I probably wouldn`t have done American Outlaws (2001) if he hadn`t picked me out of obscurity. I`ve worked, but not at the level or people I`m working with now if he hadn`t taken a chance on an Irish kid playing a Texan.

I think I`m still trying to find my feet as an actor. And I know it ain`t brain surgery, but it confuses me and it comes between me and my sleep a lot.

I`m just a true Irish boy at heart. I`m just myself, I stick by my guns and I treat people the way I think they should be treated, regardless of their status. And I just have a laugh.

(On the girl that will interest him) "The usual obvious bullshit. Sense of humour, a bit of danger, good fun. A good heart is a really sexy thing. All women have the potential to be sexy and it`s nothing to do with the dress someone wears or the make-up they put on their face, it`s the aged-old cliché saying: `What comes from inside`. God, I`ve met gorgeous women who I`d fancy and give one to, but at the end of the day they`re not particularly sexy because they haven`t got much going inside and they are too concerned with themselves. And then I`ve met women who wouldn`t be as nearly as attractive and, because of the sense of fun they have and their joi de vivre, as they say, they`d be much sexier and you`d fall for them in a nanosecond."

I do have the ability to explore life and to be over the moon at the smallest thing - a few pints and a craic in the pub and I`m in heaven. But I have a melancholy side to me as well. Acting allows me to feel things, it kind of buys me human experience. And I don`t mean this as acting as higher cause, because it`s not, but it does kind of have a higher awareness emotionally.

I get no kicks from going to the gym. It doesn`t do it for me. Never has. Some people enjoy working out. But that`s never done it for me. In the past, I`d breathe in heavily between takes. I sucked it in and did a take. That way it doesn`t hurt the beer consumption at all.

On Hollywood: "I`m not seduced by it all. I swear to God. I`m easily pleased, yeah. Don`t get me wrong, I`ll indulge in it. I`ll be in Los Angeles for two weeks and I`ll have a laugh, get battered and have a buzz, but at the end of the day, I`ll go home. It`s just me earning a few more stories to tell everyone at home and all."

I`m in no hurry to get anywhere. I don`t have any plans. I don`t have a map. If you did in this business, you`d destroy yourself.

"I couldn`t care less about who sees my bits ... My friends asked how I could do scenes like that and not get excited, but it wasn`t like that. My bits looked the size of a cashew nut!" (on appearing nude in Tigerland (2000)).

(On people who drink tequila) "I tell them, `When you`re at home puking your guts out, I`ll be here drinking my Amstel Light.`"

Being Irish is very much a part of who I am. I take it everywhere with me.