"I know more about the characters I play. That's awful, isn't it? I seem to be able to invest more time in dissecting others' thoughts and motivations than in looking at my own. But maybe, in doing that, I can reveal parts of myself."

"My childhood was mad, bad and wonderful. It was mad because we moved house so many times. I always tend to exaggerate about this, but I think the final count was 14, so I grew up in various parts of the West Country, Ireland and London. It was a wonderful up-bringing with lots of dogs, outdoors and adventures. There were masses of books everywhere and wonderful paintings and hardly any television. Everything you could want as a child."

"Easily the most embarrassing moment in Elizabeth. I have to dance in tights that look like they've got a couple of giant tomatoes stuff inside them." [on wearing tights]

"There are fewer facets in a romantic lead. When I was with the RSC I did three mooning lovers on the trot and I found I couldn't get the creative energy to leap between those extremes."

"She gave you courage. I remember a conversation we had one afternoon when I was about 14 or 15. We were talking about what I might want to do, and she said that most people are either producers or receivers. She said, 'It's right for you to act because you are a giver.'" [on his mother]

"Oh, I'm stalking Geoffrey because I love working with him so much. Every time he appears in something new, I'll be there with him. Wearing tights." [on working with friend Geoffrey Rush]

"There you go, the so-called Next Big Thing hasn't got a job. That's when I know it's a load of bollocks." [on being the 'next big thing']

"I try not to read the things that are written about me. I think there's something very dangerous about an actor when he speaks. And, however honest the journalist is in translating what he says on to the page, especially if he speaks passionately about his work, he will always come across somehow as, er... a... I can't think of another word to use, but he always comes across as a wanker. I mean, I can speak to you now, but once it's in print I don't know what it is... I just think: "Oh, shut up..." So I prefer not to look at it and cringe."

"I was in this executive's office in LA about two years ago and he said 'I love your work Joe, love it.' I asked him what he had seen and without a trace of irony he said "Nothing." I thought: oh, this is how this business works."

"We were shooting the scene near the end where Elizabeth comes onstage to face Gwyneth. And I was looking at her thinking 'Christ, I was your lover!'

"Being the youngest makes you long for more of a voice. You find that voice early in theatrics of the kitchen. I was the one screaming, 'Hey, where is my food?'"

"I thought, 'Joooooe, don't jump into tights again.' And then I decided to take it on its own merits. Shakers is masculine and vibrant and fast and furious and sinister. In the end, you have to put reverence aside. I treated them as totally different modern pieces of a golden age. I just happened to be in tights for both.

"I don't read reviews. I can always spot an actor who's read his reviews, because if they're good, he's swaying about the stage, and if they're bad, he's changed his performance."

"I think as an actor, if you start getting work, good work, your natural instinct is to take on as much as you can, because you never know when it might end. You could make just one movie, it becomes a huge hit, and then you're set up. But you never know if something's going to be a hit or not, so you just take on as many roles as you can. Not that I'm merely out to play as many parts as possible; the quality of those roles is what ultimately matters most. It doesn't matter how much crap you make, it would still be crap."

"I'm shy anyway, so making love in front of loads of people isn't easy. Bit it is made a whole lot easier if when the person you're doing it with is Gwyneth Paltrow. She is the most gorgeous girl. Everyone on the set, including me, fell in love with her."

"I'm really a very boring person in my private life. I don't think the tabloids are going to find much to get excited about if they ever decided to follow me around. I don't tend to hang out much with other actors, and the ones I do get together with don't tend to be the telly-out-the-window types. The extent of my bad behaviour stretches to eating a few grapes in the supermarket when I'm doing my shopping. It'd be kinda difficult to make a good headline out of that, so I'll have to start getting a little reckless really. Maybe I should get some lessons from Oliver Reed."

"Hollywood is such a machine. It's a beast which I'm very wary of because I've got nothing to say, nothing to want, nothing which is sensible or that's going to change anyone's life."

The quality of mercy can only come from women. It seems that angry men who are unable to forgive bring about a lot of suffering. Women have a greater understanding of forgiveness.

[on being asked if he would consider playing James Bond] "I'm too young. (Laughs) I'm too young. I mean, Sean Connery was more... the guys were men. Sean was a real man. You believed that he was a killer, a hard drinker, a womanizer. You felt that he was an assassin. I think that for me the real James Bond has to be a very dark, tough, twisted man. I don't see it in the veins of what you might call a nice, young guy."

[when meeting Tom Stoppard before starting Shakespeare in Love]: "Tom, I think I'm about to embark on a piece of your writing which I'm going to butcher. I apologize now."