[when asked what he remembered most about filming "Lord of the Rings":] "We loved to surf over there. It`s something that we`ll take with us for a long time in the future. We plan our holidays around breaks and places to surf. When Billy [Billy Boyd] is in town I surf quite a lot, because it`s hard to go surfing on your own. You can do it, but it`s not as much fun." [December 12, 2003]

I was never a big guy in pubs. I was never the main kind of aggressor or anything like that, but I found myself in trouble because I always had a mouth that would come back with something, and there was just never anyone who could make me be quiet.

[on the period after shooting The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003):] "My first year in Los Angeles was pretty hellish. I came over here after the high point of `Lord of the Rings,` and I saw all my friends jumping around to jobs, and I had nothing." ... "My manager at the time was not doing anything for me, and I kind of got into a little bit of a funk. I was living in a [lousy] house in a [bad] part of town. I didn`t have a car, and living in L.A. without a car, well, is difficult. I couldn`t get a car because I didn`t have an American bank account and could not get credit. It`s harder to get credit than what you might think. So at that point, I was just hanging out at my place all day, playing `Grand Theft Auto III.` I was waiting for the phone I didn`t have to ring." [Knoxville News- Sentinel, Sept 24, 2004]

I think a lot of young kids at school are very conscious of trying to keep credibility in case they kind of stand out in a crowd and get bullied by trying to stay cool and stuff. And my whole thing, all the way through school, was I was just a goof... I didn`t care.

I have been heartbroken once and it has affected all my relationships from there on. But now I look at it as a occupational hazard. If you are in the meat market at some point you are gonna get mad cows disease.

I`d love to play a gangster but I think people might say I looked a bit too young and cheeky to play a character who`d just blown someones head off!

I was the class clown so I was used to performing and fooling around in front of my friends.

[on his friendship with Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood, and Orlando Bloom:] "We all look after each other and support each other. Billy and I went down to Mexico to see Orlando Bloom when he was working on Troy (2004), we went to see Billy in a play, and I went to see Elijah when he was filming in New York. We all just look after each other, and hopefully that will continue to happen. We`re a brotherhood, a fellowship." [December 11, 2003]

I think deep down I`ve always wanted to be an actor. It was the one thing in school that I was undoubtedly enthusiastic about and good at. I coasted along being good at German, Geography, English and football but there wasn`t anything that I could really call my thing, my niche.

I think if you`re an actor, then you can work on stage - but if you`ve never done it before, you`re going to have picked up a few things that you`re going to need to change when you`re working on stage.

If I could uninvent anything, I would uninvent Hitler`s mum, guns and broccoli.

I could always flip between emotions and be available to suddenly do something new. I think it`s a part of playing, and you hang onto it when you`re a kid.

[on his character the hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck:] "You don`t really see war through the eyes of a hobbit too much in the movie, but Merry becomes a warrior. To see Merry ... covered in blood, sweat and tears, and living the terrible reality, was really traumatic." [December 14, 2003]

[about a game called "Tig" made up as a prank on Elijah Wood early in the shooting of "The Lord of the Rings":] "So we -- the three of us [Billy Boyd, Monaghan, and Sean Astin] -- were constantly getting it right. And every time Elijah tried a new way of tigging, we`d say, `No, Elijah, you can`t tig on a tog, you can`t tag on a tig, you have to do an elephant impression if you`re gonna tig Billy." (He adds that the prank went on for a year before the three `fessed up.) [December 14, 2003]

If I could uninvent anything, I would uninvent Hitler`s mum, guns and broccoli.

I used to get quite upset that I`d make friends with a guy or a girl and then within the space of three years we`d move and go and live somewhere else, and you`d have to say goodbye to that person.

(On the late, great John Thaw) Not only did I admire the work John had done but also what he had achieved in his lifetime. As a man, he was incredibly nice and was totally giving as an actor. We had some stressful scenes together (in Monsignor Renard) including the one towards the end where my character breaks down in front of the priest and begs his forgiveness. John was nothing but supportive. At the time he was quite ill and yet didn`t allow that to affect his performance. I was really upset when John died because I would`ve loved to have worked with him again and show my gratitude for how he helped me out as a young actor.

I`d love to play a gangster but I think people might say I looked a bit too young and cheeky to play a character who`d just blown someones head off!

[on being intrigued by the part of the tortured Charlie in the TV series "Lost" (2004):] "The frustration of Charlie`s situation means he has a lot going on in his head. He lives in his head quite a lot. He`s a drug addict, and drug addicts, by nature, are a selfish lot. It`s a little like life imitating art. I`m not there now, but I can remember what it was like, being a little bit out there on a limb. He had it all, and now he`s facing all this (stuff). [Dom`s word was probably "shit."] Knoxville News-Sentinel, Sept 24, 2004

I have a huge issue with people pushing religious beliefs on to me as well. I guess, to a certain extent, I pretty much know who I am.

I would like to be remembered as someone who could make people laugh. I would just like to be remembered really.

For Merry, losing Pippin is like losing his strength, the other side of his personality. - On Merry and Pippin`s strong friendship in LotR.

[after the last press junket for LOTR:] "I certainly grew up a lot on the movie. I arrived in New Zealand when I was 21 and now I`m 27. It`s a defining point in any young man`s life. I just did a massive overhaul of every facet of my personality and worked out who I was going to become." [December 18, 2003]

I`m in this position where I can afford to wait, I`m lucky enough to be financially secure to not have to do anything that`s thrown at me. You know the next couple of jobs are going to be pretty crucial in terms of how you`re perceived by people. So I`m just waiting.

[on hearing that Elijah Wood told a reporter that Monaghan, Wood, and Billy Boyd were considering sharing a home in New Zealand:] "He has all these grand plans. We did look at property in New Zealand. What we`re going to do first, correct me if I`m wrong, is we`re going to buy property in our respective territories. Billy is going to buy a beautiful little cottage in Edinburgh and Elijah is going to buy some in L.A." (Boyd corrected him, "Glasgow!") [December 12, 2003]

I`ve always traveled, as a kid my parents moved me around, a different place in Germany every four years. But I got the travel bug when I was a kid, living in different countries.

I do quite like all the screaming crowds. I`m a big fan of the ladies, so to have them come to me without any real effort is amazing. [December 11, 2003]

College was a huge time for me to grow and try out new things. I mean, I guess I really started to embrace - by that point- being an individual.

[re jokes about "where the Two Towers were really located," that is, rumors about gay affection among the hobbits:] "I think it`s because we`re all young, good-looking guys. We`re kind of cheeky, and we`re very physically tactile with one other. I love those guys. I don`t (have) any qualms about it. They`re my brothers, and I don`t have any problem showing affection for men. I`m aware of my own sexuality enough to be free with people." [quoted in MX (Melbourne, Australia), December 16, 2003]

I have been heartbroken once and it has affected all my relationships from there on. But now I look at it as a occupational hazard. If you are in the meat market at some point you are gonna get mad cows disease.

I won`t miss having to stand for two hours at 4:30 a.m. and having freezing cold glue applied to my feet. I won`t miss two-hour drives to work or long, long, long, days sitting in my trailer waiting... waiting... waiting. I won`t miss glue in my ears. But I would do it all again tomorrow.

I`d always be the kid up singing and dancing and telling jokes and fooling around, and high energy. I must have been a nightmare for my parents.

[Interviewer reports Monaghan sneaking away briefly from an ABC party and lighting up a cigarette, to talk of his recent past:] "It`s hard to imagine that this was happening to someone who was in one of the biggest movies of the year before. But I would not give up that time for anything in the world. I remember writing in my journal that I was going through this growing experience because of it. I came back down to Earth with a bump." [Knoxville News-Sentinel, Sept 24, 2004]

My mom and dad just loved the fact that I fooled around. They just embraced it. They`d always kind of enjoy it, and they liked it when I made them laugh.

I hold Treebeard (In The Lord of the Rings) quite close to my heart. He takes things very slowly -- he knows that he`ll live forever, so he can spend as much time as he wants mulling things over. I`m turned on by that because I don`t think that way.

I guess we`re living in a pretty sensitive world and there`s nothing you can do about that.

Charlie was a 45-year-old rocker who had been spat out the other side - they were looking at someone like John Hannah. My pitch was, `Wouldn`t it be a more interesting character if he was someone who has barely scratched the surface of what he could be?` I had a lot of frustration and confusion about my career that I transplanted into Charlie. - on his character Charlie from "Lost"

I`ve always had itching feet. I like being on the move every couple of years. [Knoxville News-Sentinel, Sept 24, 2004]