Quotes from Alexander Skarsgard

Swedes are such a civilised, perfect society - at least on the surface. There's a great safety net, a huge middle class, free education, free health care. People are very polite, they wait their turn. They're not too loud, they're not too quiet, but sometimes it's a little too perfect.

I like to dress up and put on a nice suit for a party or a special event; I do enjoy it, but on a daily basis, I wear stuff that I feel comfortable in, you know?

I wasn't like a Hollywood child actor - 'I'm five! I can sing, I can dance, I can act! I wanna be a star!'

A true artist, in my mind, is willing to fail sometimes, because if you're not brave enough to say yes and follow your gut, it's never going to be good.

Swedes are such a civilised, perfect society - at least on the surface. There's a great safety net, a huge middle class, free education, free health care. People are very polite, they wait their turn. They're not too loud, they're not too quiet, but sometimes it's a little too perfect.

I don't really have any plans in terms of what I want to do - movies, television, theater - but I'd love to do a play in New York.

There's something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden. In a way, I feel that time doesn't exist in LA. Sometimes I don't know if it's February or April or October, because you're always sitting outside on the same patio, and it's 70 degrees.

I'm not saying everything in Sweden is perfect, because it's not. But it is interesting having grown up in a social democratic country such as Sweden and then watching what's going on in the U.S. and the income disparity.

Sweden is a good country to raise a family in because there is an equality there I don't feel in the States.

I'm from Sweden. We don't wear clothes in Sweden.

We don't have paparazzi following you in Sweden.

The system in Sweden is great because you get free healthcare and free education; someone who doesn't have a lot of money can become a doctor or lawyer. There's good paternity and maternity leave - the U.S. is probably the only civilised country in the world that doesn't give parents anything.

To me, when I watch movies, it's always fun to watch the bad cop or the bad guy.

I'm tall in Sweden, but I'm huge in Hollywood.

Routines, or lack thereof, are a pretty good way to get to know someone.

All the characters I play are all inside of me in a way, and they're all different, the darkness, the lightness, whatever that is.

Life isn't one-dimensional. The world isn't simply divided into good versus evil. I think we're all capable of both.

As a teenager, I didn't want to be an actor at all.

I've been a member of Greenpeace since I was a teenager.

I was raised by this whole community of artists. It was pretty wild.

There are a lot of Swedes in Hollywood in general. We have a tendency to know each other and help each other out.

When we were shooting in Shreveport, me and a couple of friends went down to Lafayette, because they had a big Zydeco music festival down there. We spent two days dancing to Zydeco music, eating fried alligator... It was one of the craziest festivals I've ever been to in my life, but I loved it.

I'm pretty intense when it comes to relationships, platonic ones as well. If I feel a connection with someone, I'm willing to go there.

I spent a summer in Texas when I was eight, in Fredericksburg, which is, like, real Texas. It's, like, cowboys and stuff. That was my first time in the States, and I was eight years old. It was also the first time I tasted Dr. Pepper, which blew my mind.