Bale's Quote (2007)

過去幾年，我如願地參與了不少我自己很中意的電影作品，而且那些作品也獲得了我期待的回饋。我是個凡人，這樣的結果讓我感覺良好，我喜歡聽到人們喜歡我的所作所為，而我不喜歡被嘲笑。我很想說我是個完全不管別人怎樣想的人，但是那不是真的。我是靠什麼吃飯的？我的片酬畢竟靠的是人們對我的看法。有時候，遵循他人意見所做出來的作品卻會讓自己顏面盡失。但在我的人生中，我已經透過無數的嘗試中學到了一件事，就是在他人眼中所謂的屈辱其實可以帶給我無限的樂趣。透過這些過程，我也因此有了成長，而且要是你根本不在意那些屈辱，在某些方面我會因此不再感到恐懼。重點是，你要去嘗試，我真的認為嘗試才是最重要的部分。如同你所說，過去兩年的我真的非常地幸運，我有機會做我想做的事，也就是拍電影，而且也交出了不少好成績。若我的作品交出了該有的成績那就真的太好了。只是，一切要是過於順遂，情況就又會變得無趣，無趣得可以。

(2007 - On his career) I've been able to work on movies that I like very much in the past few years, which I think have turned out how I had hoped that they would. And, I'm human, you know; that makes me feel good. I like it when people like what I do. I don't like it when people are laughing at me for what I do, you know? I mean, I'd love to say I was completely impervious to anybody's opinion, but that just ain't the truth. Of course, it matters. At the same time, there's also a danger when you start playing it too safe. After all, what am I paid to do? I'm paid to essentially make an ass out of myself, if needed. And occasionally, in doing that, you're going to fall flat on your face. But, I have learned, through doing that numerous times in my life, that there's also a ton of enjoyment to what other people see as humiliation. You can actually come to sort of thrive on that, because in a way, it kind of leads to a sort of fearlessness, if you genuinely don't mind. If the point is that you tried, I think that really is the most important thing. And, like you said, I feel like I've been very fortunate in the last couple of years that I've gotten to do what I loved, which is actually the making of movies, and on top of that, if I've liked how the movies have turned out themselves, then that's fantastic. But, to start getting too comfortable within that would be eventually to start churning out boring, boring chaff.