I was not really as good as I should have been.

You can forgive yourself a great deal.

I don't really care how I am remembered as long as I bring happiness and joy to people.

I don't think I'm proud of anything in acting.

I always thought I was a singer, but I really am not.

What's the most important thing in the world? It's love, and I look at that as an energy, not a sentiment.

I was not really as good as I should have been.

And so I missed those best years and I find it difficult for me, in groups, to be comfortable.

Courage is just fear plus prayers plus understanding.

I always knew I would act. It was just a matter of time.

If I wasn't Eddie Albert's son, I'd be someone else's. It gave me a chance to do a lot of traveling, but mostly I'm glad I'm his son because he's such a good man.

Usually in features, I'm the lead. I consider the director the captain, but I consider myself the first mate, and it's up to me to keep in contact with the heart of the crew.

Writing laws based on an abstract theory, rather than reality, is a dangerous undertaking.

Surreal can be exciting and good, and it can be like living inside an alien landscape, and it can be completely interesting, or you can be alienated from your own life inside your own life, it doesn't feel familiar any more.

It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

I used to teach at a private school, and the parents thought I loved their children. I did not love their children! I liked them well enough, but I was always delighted to see them go off for summer vacation.

It is impossible to think of a world in which America was not there in the honorable service of humanity.

When you discuss your steel industry with China you are credible because you are part of the E.U., not because you are just U.K. You will be completely killed otherwise. You will never be in the situation to negotiate face to face with the Chinese because your domestic market is not relevant for the Chinese in comparison with their domestic market.

I could draw up a list of about 30 artists who I apparently sound like. From Lady Gaga, to Katy Perry to Lana Del Rey. I don't know if it's because I'm versatile or because production affects how people judge music. I can't wait for a time I can just be classed as myself.

Life is a dream made real through the power of our imaginations.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

Childhood smells of perfume and brownies.

Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.

Death and taxes are unsolved engineering problems.

We need to take steps to strengthen and mend Social Security so that its promise of a secure retirement is just as real for seniors in the future as it is today.

I don't claim to be some Aaron Sorkin expert, but it is like a Camelot. His shows are a place where people are trying to reach their highest potential. And I think we miss that sometimes. If I got a chance to do 'The Newsroom,' I would have done it yesterday.

Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit.

I don't take on a fight just for a fight. I don't tilt at windmills.

When you're young, you think you can do anything, and that was really a gift. That's why I can never understand someone telling me 'no' today. 'No' just isn't an option.

I'm a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.

The people who watch a movie like 'Wolf of Wall Street' and want to work on Wall Street are exactly the kind of people who shouldn't.

Never short of guns and guerrillas, Afghanistan has proven fertile ground for a host of insurgent groups in addition to the Taliban.

I've had three novels published, and I was working a little bit in theater in Ireland. I wrote one film script just to see what it would turn out like.

There's a kind of a fundamental irresponsibility in playwriting, and the strength of playwriting comes from that irresponsibility.

What I've learned over the years is that the craft of songwriting is trying to take the personal and make it universal - or in the case of telling a story, taking the universal and making it personal.

I guess in Hollywood you chart your life by Oscars. You say to each other, 'Remember when that movie won that year? It was 2006. Remember that?'