It's a huge challenge, a huge responsibility. Bond is a huge iconic figure in movie history. These opportunities don't come along very often so I thought, 'Why not?'

I just felt that you can't have a character fall in love so madly as they did in the last movie and not finish it off, understand it, get some closure. That's why the movie is called 'Quantum of Solace' - that's exactly what he's looking for.

I didn't want to do a zoo show. I didn't want to do a study of someone with mental illness. I just wanted to show someone who was trying to live their life.

As soon as someone tells me: 'You're rather sexy,' I wish I could disappear. If somebody says: 'You were voted the world's sexiest man,' I have no idea what that means. How do I respond? 'Thank you' is the best you can do. George Clooney is the world's sexiest man, anyway.

But I do know people that have stalkers and it's not nice.

We agreed to do it when I was drunk at his house one night, then on the day I had to have four large brandies - they didn't touch the sides at all. People just got on with it though. It didn't gather a crowd!

It's not like I was trying to be sexy but I had to get fit because I had to be able to do stunts. Also I wanted that, if Bond took his clothes off, he looked like a man who did what he did, which was kill people for a living. I thought the only way to do that was to work out and get fit and buff and get physically into shape.

He knows that you have ability and what he does is he manipulates it and sort of empowers you.

I find it very easy playing Bond. I think he's hilarious. He gets himself into some extraordinarily funny situations.

Being on your own would be sad, sick and weird. I don't trust myself. I need that balance.

Any voices or fantasies, he lives with. Those are his everyday life things.

It's a huge challenge, a huge responsibility. Bond is a huge iconic figure in movie history. These opportunities don't come along very often so I thought, 'Why not?'

It's a Tim sandwich. The meat is fresh, but the bread is moldy.

I know in my life there's stuff that will come back because I haven't dealt with it, and it's the same with everybody.

The idea of regretting not doing this seemed insane to me. Sitting in the corner at a bar at age 60, saying: 'I could've been Bond. Buy me a drink.' That's the saddest place I could be. At least now at 60 I can say: 'I was Bond. Now buy me a drink.'

There's a passion about this because people take it very close to their hearts and they have grown up with James Bond - and so have I. But I was being criticized before I had presented anything, so it was name calling.

The subject matter is very tricky. It's about the Munich massacre and what Mossad did afterwards with the assassination squads. I think it's a turning point in history, especially for the Palestinians.

Sexiness, particularly in movies, is the chess game in the 'Thomas Crown Affair'. It's, it's, I don't know, but Faye Dunaway comes up a lot in that thinking. It's the subtlety of sexiness. The moment you try to be sexy, then it's not.

I've never really had a desire to do Shakespeare. For me, it's just too many lines.

There's no real side to be on because I think it was a mess.

A secret is a secret in my mind.

Although I'm not from London originally: I moved down here when I was 16, so it's played a part in my life. It's where I've lived for all that time.

Anybody can leap off a building.

At some point, life starts to pass you by and becomes about avoidance. I want to stay clear from that situation, because I don't like that.

Even the worst Bond movies, there's something to love about them.

Good scripts are hard to find.

I always wanted to make movies.

I can't go to war with paparazzi.

I can't really dress rock 'n' roll any more because I'm the wrong side of 40, but I want that to be the fashion.

I don't care what other people are doing.

I don't say: 'can't do that', 'won't do that'. I've never thought in that way about work.

I got through college.

I guess you could say I've been in my share of violent movies.

I had to have shoulder reconstruction.

I have never played a role in which someone's dark side shouldn't be explored.

I just think that the collective experience of going to see a film is something you can't recreate.

I just wanted to play a cowboy for a long time.

I know it's surprising, but there is a generation of people who haven't seen a Bond movie. They have no idea what it is. I want to entertain them as much as anyone else.

I know what I like in other actors: truth. That's the best. It makes you say, 'OK, I'll go with you on this.'

I love that my friends are all freaks.

I never really had a strong accent.

I stopped worrying about being desired a long time ago.

I take my work seriously.

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.

I think there's a lot to be said for keeping your own counsel.

I used to think the press was a necessary evil and now I don't think it is. I think it's something you choose.

I was sick and tired of being an English actor who did a lot of American movies because I was cheap and good.

I'm a really bad liar.

I'm definitely not satisfied about my career. I don't know how you can be, it's the very nature of things.