I don't have to prove anything to anyone. As a result, I am ready to take up again the characters who are closer to what I really am.

When the first Superman movie came out, I gave dozens of interviews to promote it. The most frequent question was: What is a hero? My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences. Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

When I first began acting, I assumed an intellectual responsibility attached to my profession, which I had accepted for a long time. My father taught me that an actor had to have a social and political conscience, and that the work that he does has to reflect from that.

You learn the stuff of your life (sports, movies, traveling) ... that's not the essence of your existence, my relationships were always good. Now they have transcended (rise beyond).

The character is a piece of fiction. You are yourself, however, and that makes you interesting, because you're alive and you're a human being.

Nothing of any consequence happens unless people get behind an idea. It begins with an individual and they share the idea with more individuals-and eventually it becomes a movement.

People may never understand this - and perhaps I should give up caring whether they do or not - but the idea of me playing Superman is so far away from what I was brought up to aspire to.