“I’d say I felt weird from the time I was 12 to the time I was 17, but then again, during your teenage years, there’s that feeling of safety, like nothing can go wrong, but that kind of feeling gets lost later.”

“I know it sounds strange, but I’ve never had much ambition, I never really wanted to be an actor or a director, I was a musician and still am. The other stuff just happened.”

“Since I was a teenager, I’ve been afraid of being a loser, a guy with no talent or ambition. No matter how much money I’ve made as an actor, I can’t seem to get rid of this image of myself as a white trash loser.”

“I’ve always been attracted to losers. I’ve never played the Hollywood game just for the sake of winning. I do what I want and, if it works within my career, great. If not, fuck it. I won’t be a slave to success.”

“I’ve never liked being in the public eye. It makes me feel very uncomfortable. That’s why I love spending time in Paris so much. I can do what I want without being scrutinised, judged or stalked. I’m not really interested in glitz. I prefer to live a life filled as much as possible with unusual experiences.”

“There’s nothing worse than someone who considers themselves a serious actor, because an actor is essentially a liar. I make a living. I definitely wouldn’t call myself a film star. I’m much more ‘in the trenches’ than glittery!”

“Maybe one day I’ll make a movie that really blows people away. The sort of movie that I can point to one night when I’m real old and watching TV and say to my grandchildren: ‘Hey, guys, Grandpop was pretty cool in this film don’t you think?’ Yeah - I’d like to be able to say that about myself one day.”

“I’d like to have the opportunity to keep working. I’m still a little shocked that I keep getting gigs, keep getting jobs. I feel very fortunate, very lucky, that people still hire me.”

“I’m not sure I’m capable of leaving behind a personal message. But if I did, I hope it would be that it’s okay to be different from the crowd. In fact, it’s really good to be different from the crowd, and that we really should question ourselves before we pass judgement on someone who is different to us.”

“I’m happy to say that I know nothing at all about who’s in or out, or anything about the Hollywood scene. I don’t watch contemporary films and I don’t read trade magazines, I just don’t know who’s doing what, or who’s a failure and who’s a success.”

“When a little kid on the street approaches me and screams, ‘Hey! You’re that Captain Jack Sparrow!’ Then I am always deeply touched.”

(On POTC1 Oscar nomination) “I’m very thankful. And I’m very grateful for this past year, and certainly the things that have happened.  I had no expectations at all. Certainly not nominations of any sort. So, I’m very touched, very moved.”

(On his mother’s old waitress job) “cursed like a sailor, played cards and smoked cigarettes. And sometimes she would come home after working ten hours with $30 in tips. So in turn, when I was growing up, I just got in the habit of tipping.”

(On remembering hid Grandfather) “I remember picking tobacco back in Kentucky. We were inseparable, me and my Pawpaw. He died when I was seven and that was a real big thing for me. But somehow I believe that he’s around. I believe in ghosts. I hope I’m a ghost someday. I think I’d have more energy. But I’m sure my Pawpaw is around – guiding, watching. I have close calls sometimes. I think, Jesus Christ! How did I get out of that? I’ve just got a felling that it’s Pawpaw.”

“I was a weird kid. A kind of weed-head. I wanted to be Bruce Lee. I wanted to be on a SWAT team. And when I was five, I think, I wanted to be Daniel Boone.”

(On moving house as a child) “We must have moved about 30 times. We’d go from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, sometimes from one house to next door. I don’t know why. My mom would get ants somehow. But there’s a huge history of my family out there. Furniture, my toys, schoolwork, everything everything, everything was abandoned, left in attics or garages. All gone. We were gypsies, we lived all over the place, always transient. After a while, I thought, I’m not even going to introduce myself to the other kids.”

“I was not the most popular kid, I always felt like a total freak. The feeling of wanting to be accepted but not knowing how to be accepted as you are – honestly.”

“wanting to hold a girl, but thinking I’ll screw it up.”

“I was maybe 12, and we put a T-shirt on the end of a broom handle, soaked it in gasoline and lit it. Then I put gasoline in my mouth and breathed fire like Simmons. Only it set my face on fire: I was running down the street with my face alight. Unfortunately, my mom was going to see that my face was all burned up, so I lied completely. I said we were shooting fireworks off and one went off in my face. And she fell for it. She certainly didn’t expect me to say, ‘Well I put gasoline in my mouth and blew it into a huge stick of fire, Mom.’ The fireworks story was easier for her and me; and she bought it, bless her heart. It was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done – not the dumbest, but right up there – and I have done lots of stupid things.”

“My cousin had a gospel group and they came down and played gospel songs, and that was the first time I ever saw an electric guitar.”

“I got obsessed with the electric guitar, so my mom bought me one for $25. I was about 12 years old. Then I locked myself in my room for a year and taught, myself how to play chords, picking thing off records. That’s how I got through puberty, just sitting in my room playing guitar, slobbering. Rarely do I remember seeing my family. And then I started playing in little garage bands. The first group I ever played I was called Flame.”

(On the image for his first band ‘Flame’) “At first we would wear T –shirts that said ‘Flame’ on them. Next, at 13, I was wearing plain shirts. Then I used to steal my mom’s clothing. She had all these crushed velvet shirts with French-cut sleeves. And like seersucker bell bottoms: I dreamed of having platforms, but couldn’t find any.”

“I’d been in high school for 3 years, and I may have just walked out yesterday. I had like eight credits, and I was in my 3^rd year at high school and I didn’t want to be there. I was bored out of my mind, and I hated it.”

“I hung around with bad crowds. We used to break and enter places. We’d break into the school and destroy a room or something. I used to steal things from stores.”

(On an old teacher wanting hid autograph) “I mean, what was I supposed to say? He’d failed me. I remember this one time a teacher yelled at me so heavily in front of the entire class. He didn’t have any time for me then, and now, all of a sudden, he wants my autograph? They all thought I was going to end up a drug addict and in jail.”

“I started smoking when I was 12, lost my virginity at 13 and did every kind of drug there was by 14. Pretty much any drug you can name, I’ve done it. I wouldn’t say I was bad or malicious, I was just curious. I certainly had my little experiences with drugs. Eventually, you see where that’s headed and you get out.”

"Between now and then, what I'm going to do, I guess, is slobber and drool, space out, play Barbies with my daughter and sword-fight with my son,''

(talking about Barbie trucks) "I mean, those things are a real bastard to put together, so frustrating that they will send you onto the verge of a nervous breakdown."

(On the Oscars 2004) "All Vanessa and I could think of was 'When and where can we go smoke?' '' he said, frowning. "And, 'Where can we get a drink?' And, 'When is it over?' And, 'Please, don't let me win.' It was such a shock, to get the news that I'd been nominated. My first reaction was 'Why?' On one level I was flattered; but it's not what I'm working for. And when I didn't win the Thing -- oh, I was ecstatic. Absolutely ecstatic. I applauded the lucky winner [Sean Penn] and said, 'Thank God!' "

(On saying “F**k it” a lot) "I've ended up saying it in life a lot and in the work a lot, and I've always found it very helpful. Yes, 'f**k it,' over the years, has always been pretty soothing."

(About making his character Willy Wonka) "Frankly, I got worried, It's like something's wrong, because they're not flipping out. I'm not doing my f**king job! But then months into it, Alan Horn, the president of Warner Bros., finally admitted to having felt a little tinge of fear over the initial dailies, and I thought, 'OK, I'm all right.' "

(On Lagavulin, a drink) "Peat, It's so peaty!"

(On first seeing Vanessa) "Whammo, man, across the room, amazing, incredible, awesome, the Back, the Back, I saw the Back, and I was reduced to…" (makes a blubbering, love-struck sound)

“I’ve weaned myself down to about, on a great day on a really great day, three cigarettes. For a nicotine junkie the essential cigs are three: the first-of-the-day cigarette smoked after lunch, the after-dinner cigarette and then the one taken whenever you want—the luxury wild-card smoke. It used to be quite a bit more. It use to be, I’d smoke these tables, I’d smoke the patch. I’d smoke the gum. So I feel good about it.”

(On pyjamas) “found them a very agreeable thing.”

(On trashing a hotel room) “I was trying to catch this bug, and a couple of articles of furniture just happened to get in the way.”

“There’s been many times when I’ve teetered on the brink of absolute madness, and unfortunately, once I go, I go, so I count on Vanessa to talk me down. And I does take some serious f**king reeling in to bring me back to three-dimensional reality. But it’s not anywhere near as disturbing as it used to be. With age, you do mellow in certain areas. And it’s f**king happiness.”

“I try to avoid mirrors”

(After going to the loo) “I avoid the doorknob afterward, because why’d I wash my hands if I’ve got to touch the f**king doorknob?”

(On peanuts in a bar)

“Don’t ever go for the peanuts. They’ve got twenty-seven different kinds of urine on them, scientifically tested.”

(On himself fighting) “a dirty fighter. Oh, yeah. The dirtiest there ever was. Stop at nothing. It doesn’t matter. Balls, sucker punch, bit the ear, pull the ear, gouge an eye out. I have done damage, and damage has been done tome. I’ve been hit with everything in the world: ashtrays, bottles, the worst being a pointy-toed Tony Lama boot to the face.”

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