“This part was great fun and I enjoyed working with Martine very much.I hear she said I was a good kisser. Well, I can tell you she’s not bad either.In fact, she’s very good indeed.”

I`m a laugh tart. I make no secret of that fact.

The only reason my work seems to be eclectic up to a certain period is because I was a failure as an actor.

For any new technology there is always controversy and there always some fear associated with it. I think that`s just the price of being first sometimes.

When I think about actors I know, I`d much rather hear about who they`re shagging than what film they`re doing next.

The truth is, I`d never seen a Cary Grant film. Since then I have watched his stuff and it`s astounding, but I don`t see any similarity between us. Except for the fact that I`m told he used to wear ladies` underwear, which is something I also do.

Plus, teaching brings home to you very fast that you actually know nothing. I didn`t realize that before.

I had Courtney Love`s left bosom out of her dress on my plate in front of me. It was extraordinary. I didn`t know where to look.

Strangely enough I`m better on a stage. I love that I feel like I blossom in front of a whole bunch of people.

But I just know from experience that accent wise, even if you`re an accent genius, crossing the Atlantic is the hardest thing in the world either way.

I was thinking on the plane yesterday how pathetic it is to be dreading the read-through after 25 films and 18 years of acting. I mean real terror.

Now, I quite like it. For years I sat in these interviews and everyone said, You`re always Mister Nice Guy, why don`t you ever play someone nasty?" So in fact it`s been a relief to be...for the real me to come out more on camera. I don`t have any particular burning desire to go back to being cuddly. Not really. " [on playing the bad guy in films]

But when you`re a celebrity, you discover that you`re no longer the pursuer, but the one being pursued. That`s one of the disappointments I have had since becoming a single man.

The reason I turn down 99% of a hundred, I mean a thousand, scripts is because romantic comedies are often very romantic but seldom very funny.

I don`t think there`s much point in putting me a deep, dark, heavy, emotional film because there are people who do it so much better than I do.

I think that`s the whole point of Bridget Jones. It`s all about that it`s okay to fail.

I find it hard to understand why Scorsese has never called. You know, given the natural menace I bring to the screen.

And film acting is incredibly tedious, just by its nature. It`s incredibly, mind numbingly slow.

And I particularly like the whole thing of being boss. Boss and employee... It`s the slave quality that I find very alluring.

I don`t have any particular burning desire to go back to being cuddly. Not really.

You know everyone loves to be the villain.

Neither Elizabeth or I are keen to do a real-life couple on the screen. It`s not very electric.

Well, you know I have an office, my film offices. So I know that syndrome. I fancy offices, so there must be something wrong with me. Even the window cleaner intrigues me. It`s a very sexy environment.

it was the same approach as the first one, which was just to make sure that it was as crap as we wanted it to be. The key is to stop the stunt coordinator from coming in to make it look like a film fight. We just wanted it to be two pathetic Englishmen scared of each other, throwing their handbags at each other basically [On his screen fight with Colin Firth in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)].

The moral of filmmaking in Britain is that you will be screwed by the weather.

Most actors really love it, that`s what they want to do. They burn to do it. And so they`ll read a script and think, that`s an interesting part. And because they love acting, that blinds them to the fact that the rest of it is pretentious nonsense, which it very often is.

With 2 movies opening this summer, I have no relaxing time at all. Whatever I have is spent in a drunken stupor.

I cling to the fantasy that I could have done something more creative. Like actually writing a script, or writing a book. But the awful truth is that I... probably can`t!

I think maybe in a way it gets worse because you come in with a real reputation and they`ve paid you lots of money and all that.

"I think film acting`s just a miserable experience. It`s so long and so boring and so difficult to get right so that what you need above all is incredible willpower and strength of mind."

[on his thoughts of actress Julia Roberts] "Very big-mouthed! Literally, physically, she has a very big mouth. It is a very big mouth. When I was kissing her I was aware of a faint echo."

"Women are frightening. If you get to 41 as a man, you`re quite battle-scarred."

"I`ve got four houses in my street. I live in two and the others are empty. I`ll buy more as they come up, because I think it would be great to have the entire street."

"I watch an awful lot of women`s sport recently. I don`t know what that means about me. I watch the women`s golf. I watch the women`s tennis very much."

"I don`t particularly like babies. I don`t mind them for about four minutes. That`s my max. After that I can`t quite see what everyone`s fussing about."

"I do, kind of, want to ram their microphones down their patronising throats" - on being called posh by the media

"Basically, my life is so boring, it`s embarrassing."

"I just don`t believe in love at first sight any more, even though I`ve based my whole career on the concept. In my experience, power, money and influence always attract the opposite sex. It`s something that I`ve always exploited - with good results."

"I could do with more mobbing, Particularly from women. I`d like to be treated like Ricky Martin".