[12/18/03, about the scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) in which Sam helps Frodo up Mount Doom] It was an incredible acting experience, being on the side of a volcano with that language. That language is so beautiful: "It`ll be springtime soon, and they`ll be sowing barley on the fields." When Peter [Peter Jackson] came up to tell me to lower my arm, something like that, tears were streaming down his face, and to see him that emotional just forced me into it . . . It [finally seeing the last three reels of the film] was a huge cry. It was all of the tension and stress and pressure of having a wife and children, having a career, the investment of these movies. I was sobbing and heaving, I could barely breathe, and the movie facilitated that. It was just a huge release.

[on Rudy (1993)] I loved this movie because it shows that if you work hard, you can achieve anything.

The sidekick business has been good to me.

[2/12/04, on souvenirs from Middle-earth] I got Sam`s backpack, which began to feel like a second skin, albeit a very uncomfortable skin. I also got to keep Sam`s sword, as well as some Hobbit feet and ears. I can take them out and make the whole family smile!

[2/12/04] I remember, before we started principal photography on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Peter Jackson screened Braveheart (1995) and The Thin Red Line (1998) for the cast. He said, "This is the tone I want to strike with the Ring movies. I want to see the grime on their faces, the dirt on the ground, and I want that level of gritty emotionalism and intensity." I think his idea was that you can enjoy the fantasy more if you really believe it.

[2/12/04] I don`t care if I`m 5`7" and pretty heavy, weight-wise, in the film [the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy]. I still see myself as Errol Flynn. Even when I was a little boy, playing war games in the back yard, I pictured myself as the hero.

[12/14/03, on his character Sam Gamgee] I spent the film doing lots of things, but the crying is what lived. He [Peter Jackson] tricks you into thinking you`re going to get to do all these brave, heroic things most of the time, and you have to cry once in a while . . . and then he cuts out the heroic moments and you`re left thinking, "I look like a big baby".

[refuting the remarks of cast and crew that he IS Samwise Gamgee] But I`m not really Sam . . . nobody could be that good, that noble. He`s just better than the rest of us. I`m a lot more Hollywood than Sam would ever be.

I`d never heard of the "Lord of the Rings", actually. So I went to the bookstore and there it was, three shelves of books about Tolkien and Middle-earth, and I was like, "Holy cow, what else am I missing out on?"

I was told I had to gain a lot of weight because Hobbits are very portly. Peter [Peter Jackson] is forever suggesting I have more food: "A little more food for Mr. Astin."