"The English people, a lot of them, would not be able to understand a word of spoken Shakespeare. There are people who do and I'm not denying they exist. But it's a far more philistine country than people think." "I have a kind of neutrality, physically, which has helped me. I have a face that can be made to look a lot better - or a lot worse." "And I always thought the biggest failing of Americans was their lack of irony. They are very serious there! Naturally, there are exceptions...the Jewish, Italian, and Irish humor of the East Coast." (Italian Vogue) [Talking about his success in playing the two Mr. Darcy roles] "I was delighted to become a popular-culture reference point. I'm still delighted about it actually, and I still find it to be weird." "Forget "trying" to be sexy. That's just gruesome." "If I want my career to go on, I'm going to have to find some more Fiennes brothers! However, any similarity between them basically stops at their last name. I was in no way reminded of Ralph by working with Joe. I got on fantastically with both of them. I have huge admiration for them as actors but I couldn't compare them." (on losing the girl to both Ralph and Joe Fiennes) "Well it doesn't exactly have a ring to it, does it? It's more the sort of name you'd give to your goldfish for a joke." [about his first name] "I have a kind of neutrality, physically, which has helped me. I have a face that can be made to look a lot better or a lot worse, depending on how I want it to look." "The first actor who really blew me away was Paul Scofield in [the movie] A Man for All Seasons. I'd never seen such integrity in acting, and it struck me as a fascinating paradox because acting is artifice. It can be argued to be entirely false. I thought, how can an actor suggest such truth?" "I like playing strange characters. Some people might say it has something to do with a hidden part of myself, but I think it's a lot simpler than that: normal people are just not very interesting."