I'm not a big one for lots of genitals flapping in the films.

In the editing room, 20 percent of the time you're using stuff from before the actor knew the camera was rolling or you're taking a line from somewhere else and putting it in his mouth.

I tend to turn down roles that are too much like me, what I think is most like me anyhow, because I'm me all the time and I'm sick of it.

Most of us... are simply just trying to get through the day. And wait for those times in their life that are markers, that put things into relief. That's why we like movies and books so much.

Part of the advantage, and part of the result of trying to be a producer and director, are the practical things, you find. It's so advantageous to go to a place that you already have a feel for, a literal and spiritual familiarity.

I just wanna get to the end of the day without it raining.

What we do at its very, very best, at its very, very most, will shift us slightly in our seat. If only for two hours, great. If for the rest of our lives, even better.

I think people tend to live, whether they like it or not, influenced by what's next door to them.

I only made two studio movies, that was a long time ago and obviously I removed myself. I think some of that is geographical. I live in New York and I want to work there, it's as simple as that.

The fact is, it's hard to release movies.

I know it's good when I see a smaller film get recognized because it means more publicity for them. When you start producing and directing the movies become a little more like your children.

There's no doubt in the world that directing makes you a better actor. Me, anyway. There's no doubt in the world that it makes me a more collaborative actor.

Working hard is great, being lazy sometimes is great, but failed potential is the worst.

I make little movies, you know, they need all the help that they can get.

I'm not a big one for lots of genitals flapping in the films.

I had been to New Mexico many times. I loved it. It's a very exotic, interesting, severely crazy environment. I don't know if I could live there all year. It's such an intense place.

I'm known as a kind of dramatic, serious, almost humorless actor and the fact is, I'm a funny guy, and I spend most of my life trying to find a lighter side of things, and on stage was given plenty of opportunity to do that.

The fact is that you're never gonna believe any of the reviews, because the movie is to you what it is to you. No one's ever gonna sway you from what you feel about it.

Directing is: you're overwhelmed the whole time. Your mind never stops. If you care about it. You wake up in the morning and you begin thinking about it and then you go to sleep at night and you're still thinking about it.

The reason I got into acting was not to explore myself. I was a reader, I didn't care about acting. I got into it in college, but I had no interest really in that, in getting up in front of anybody.

Actors are conditioned to develop a system for expressing as much as they can in the shortest amount of time because you're going to get all cut up in a movie.

I hate to tell you this, but there's an entire subset of people out there who think of me as quite a dull actor. And that's the word used, and often - dull.

I learned, especially from my mother, to respect the profession and take it seriously, but not take yourself too seriously.

I worked with Lukas Haas a long time ago, when he was younger, and he was wonderful.

If you're playing a good guy, you show some darkness. If you're playing a dark guy, you show something different, like humor, that will mix it up and hopefully surpass the audience's expectations. What I'm battling all the time is complacency in the audience. I try to bring a little mystery to what might happen because that engages people more.

Shakespeare is rich and beautiful, and it can be an amazing experience to read and to watch and to work on.

Television and cable have become the new independent films, in a sense, for writers and actors to gravitate towards. That's why I like short films, too; I love doing readings, audio books, working with young filmmakers; anything that keeps you from getting blase about yourself or in a rut.

It was great to play an ex-marine cockney thug. All my roles are as different as the colours of the rainbow.

I'm always writing. There is always a story brewing in my head.

My parents were quite liberal with us, always encouraging us to be our own person and be creative.

Black detraction will find faults where they are not.

Recovery is something that you have to work on every single day and it's something that it doesn't get a day off.

Shine with all you have. When someone tries to blow you out just take their oxygen and burn brighter.

I think this is what we all want to hear that we are not alone in hitting the bottom and that it is possible to come out of that place courageous beautiful and strong.

If you do something and it goes wrong, you learn from it and you move on.

Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make, bombs, for instance, or strawberry shortcake, if you make even the tiniest mistake you can find yourself in terrible trouble.

The stuff that matters in life is no longer stuff. It's other people. It's relationships. It's experience.

It's a mixed feeling when everything you've ever wanted in making films is coming true, and yet you feel scared because it's happening all at once. Suddenly you're in rooms with people you've looked up to for years, the Judi Denches. You wonder if you're good, if you have what it takes.

Creating stuff is hard. But, if that terrifies you, you will just be numb, and you better just stay at home and watch TV and do something else. Move into the woods and live with the trees.

I'm a tenured professor. But I'd get rid of tenure.

Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence, accident, or disease.

What influences our behavior, and what our level of responsibility is, are very complex issues. And anytime we try to make this simplistic, we don't serve people well.

When your focus is social change and not financial change why wouldn't you want to share that openly? Innovation only succeeds when it's shared.

The best adaptations are the ones that really excavate the material. The movies that work are the ones in which somebody very smart figured out how to take all the thematic material, all the character material, all the filigree, all the beautiful writing and put it into a story.

I write about the trials and triumphs of contemporary life - and often the readers see themselves between the lines of the story.

I do feel like by buying rats from a pet store, you are saving them because if not, they would get fed to a snake or something.

Facing a difficulty requires a willingness of heart.

I came to America, and I made good. It's an old story, but it hasn't been told in a long time. Usually, it's, 'I'm an immigrant, I came here and got persecuted.' My story is I came here, I worked hard, and it worked out all right. So it's still available.

The only character I ever remember actually creating in a flash of inspiration was George Liquor. God planted that in my head in an instant.