I don't like people who use the press to advance themselves in a way that they haven't earned as an actor, performer or director.

I made three movies in 1995 and I was unhappy with all of them: Sleepers, Incognito, and Speed 2.

Training Day was such a Hollywood movie; I didn't like it.

Now, being on the cover of Vanity Fair is as important as being in great movies. The lines are very, very blurred.

I don't find movies interesting. I just want to do the movies that made me interested in getting into movies, and they're few and far between.

I never turned down a movie because they wouldn't give me enough money.

I think The Exorcist is the best American horror movie ever made. Friedkin was at the top of his game.

I don't like people who use the press to advance themselves in a way that they haven't earned as an actor, performer or director.

When you look at some of the most respected actors there are and the crap that they're in... it didn't used to be that way.

It's interesting to help someone find their vocabulary. There would not have been a De Niro without a Scorsese.

Pacino's always played the suffering prince. I just find that interesting.

You can take a handful of dollars, a good story, and people with passion and make a movie that will stand up against any $70 million movie.

I was making a lot of independent movies before the independent movement.

I think that's what I really liked about Narc: My character has a real operatic range in a way that older movies used to have.

I would never do something like Speed 2 again. If I'd wanted to make those kind of movies I could have signed up for five of them while it was in the can. It wasn't worth it to me. That was just an innocuous, boring movie.

I try to stay under the radar.

I have a problem with the blatant celebrity exhibitionism that happens in this business and being sold purely as a brand.

I really tried to make movies I wanted to see. I thought that if I was good enough, somebody would always need me.

Mostly I do films that mainstream Hollywood wouldn't touch.

You know how many movies it took Tom Cruise before he was making 5, 6 million dollars? It probably took a billion dollars in box office.

Everybody acts like they're in a movie in most movies. That's why they stink.

It's easy to be a movie star. The shoes are already there. They just put you in the shoes.

When actors talk about research, they're just patting themselves on the back.

I don't have a problem with fame. I got into this business intending to be very successful, but I wanted it to be at my price.

I have all this time between projects, and I'm not so sure that's a healthy thing. It's scary, because at 36 I'm woefully unqualified for anything else.

If I was coming into the business today, I wouldn't be in it. Knowing what I know, absolutely not.

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.

I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.