Mikkelsen: "I take my work enormously seriously. When I do something, it has to feel right. Everything has to be right."

Mikkelsen: "If I do my very best, then the camera and the audience will follow me, and eventually they will somehow feel like I feel. I don't have to show it to them. I don't have to speak it out loud."

Mikkelsen: "I will never be a fan of any kind of political correctness: I think it's instant death to creativity."

Mikkelsen: "We can ask ourselves why we invent God, and then, ten minutes later, we invent Satan - why? Because we need him; there's something fascinating about the other side of the coin."

Mikkelsen: "Sometimes you're trying your best and you still can't find a solution, but I try not to waste my life living in a dark place."

Mikkelsen: "There is a tendency to underestimate the power of what we can do without words. Sometimes you can make a scene even more powerful and precise without dialogue."

Mikkelsen: "I don't wear cologne. I do occasionally, but anytime I take a shower, I just put on deodorant. That's basically what I smell like."

Mikkelsen: "I never really planned a career. I've tried to avoid it. I've tried to do this stuff I felt for, the stuff I like. So, I've just been meeting these fantastic directors who've offered me a variation of different parts and different films."

Mikkelsen: "We are filmmakers, and we are specifically trying to entertain people."

Mikkelsen: "I think I've always had to pick and choose whatever I want to work on. If I'm not happy with what I'm doing, it's probably not going to end up that interesting."

Mikkelsen: "I've always been interested in strange foods, coming from all different places."

Mikkelsen: "I never even thought about being an actor. Somebody asked me if I'd like to learn the craft, and I said, 'Okay.' I was a gymnast in a show at that time, and somebody asked me afterwards one night. I performed as a gymnast for nine years, and then I did acting after that."

Mikkelsen: "I have the strange ability to shut things out."