If you're an actor in your heart, no matter how much money they shove at you, it doesn't matter if the work doesn't provide that creative spark. You want out.

No one ever takes my side.

I don't mind demanding women.

I cannot explain something that no one has ever figured out.

By my third year of Law and Order, I was climbing the walls. But you don't leave a hit show, especially when you have a five-year contract.

I have enough attention already. More, I don't really need.

Everyone feels like family and I am back in the city that I love.

Sex and the City changed New York-New York's become a big shoe store now, unfortunately.

I jumped into acting because it was fun. It was tougher when I had to take my fun seriously.

If you're an actor in your heart, no matter how much money they shove at you, it doesn't matter if the work doesn't provide that creative spark. You want out.

'Law and Order' is completely story-driven and completely characterless, really. If you do that format for five years and you're an actor, you're bound to get bored. It wears on you. And it was really wearing on me.

As an actor you appreciate the security of a job. But I don't ever want to get too comfortable.

As soon as I feel people are talking too much about my character, it's time to leave.

At this point in my life, I like the security of a job, while still having time for my young son and to pursue other creative work.

I always get involved with the environment because once you go past the tipping point with the environment, you don't get it back.

I don't know the politics of Hollywood. Am I hungry for great material? Every actor is. How I can get to it, that's another story.

I don't want to be identified by any one role I do.

I like big casts. The experience of working together, that human contact - those are my roots, professionally.

I never wanted to be the lead on a TV drama. It just robs you of your life, really.

In society, we have these unspoken rules of conduct, these 'shoulds.' Even though we pride ourselves on being a democracy, there are all these ways we say you 'should' behave. But what if you're living your life by the 'shoulds' and you're not really living your life?

Look, I'm a huge supporter of Obama's - he's the first president I ever donated money to. But I think in terms of climate change and the environment, he's been, at best, disappointing.

Most people know that forests are the lungs of our planet, literally playing a critical role in every breath we take. And that they're also home to incredible animals like the orangutan and elephant, which will go extinct if we keep cutting down their forests.

Success can be obviously a two way street.

We need healthy forests if we want to protect our climate. As the climate changes, forests become more vulnerable to insect outbreaks, droughts and wildfires. Simultaneously, when our forests are destroyed, their carbon is released back into the atmosphere, further impacting climate change. It's a horrifying one-two punch.

We talk about, you know, diet and that we shouldn't give our kids big things and obesity and fast food. Well, you know there are people who don't have that problem because they're not getting any food! We have so many deep problems and issues facing humanity.

Yoga's hard for me, but I know you can really feel the difference when you do it consistently. I'd rather be playing basketball.

You look around New York, and we are surrounded by restaurants and food trucks, and we celebrate food in this city like no tomorrow.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

I've been a very lucky actor.

I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.

When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.

Most parts that can be played by one actor can equally well be played by another, but not this.

I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy. That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I said I wanted to work with quality actors and directors.

There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won't bring to me because they don't think I'll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.

Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.

I still feel like I'm trying to make it. It's hard to shed the struggling actor thing.

Only a great actor finds the difficulties of the actor's art infinite.

Follow the wisdom of the great actor, James Cagney, you hit your mark, you look the other guy in the eye, and you tell the truth.