I could have gone the route of a lot of these former child actors, but I didn't want that for myself. Like I said, when I was 14 years old, I decided to quit. I didn't ever want to do it again.

I'm doing naughty things, I'm drinking too much, I'm going to clubs. It really didn't matter to me, other than the fact that some parents wouldn't let their kids hang out with me.

I don't mind if somebody comes up to me and shakes my hand, but if I'm in the middle of a restaurant and somebody asks me for a picture, I can be a jerk and say no, or I can say yes and draw more attention to myself, which is exactly the opposite of what I want.

I write a good amount. I've been gathering up a backlog of stuff and maybe I'll do something with it someday, but I don't want to talk about it just yet because that would jinx it.

I could have gone the route of a lot of these former child actors, but I didn't want that for myself. Like I said, when I was 14 years old, I decided to quit. I didn't ever want to do it again.

I went to high school, which was a good thing because I hadn't interacted with many people my age, and I didn't really have friends. I had a million acquaintances and no friends.

Because of what I did when I was 10 years old, I'm not living from paycheck to paycheck, and I can do things because I want to do them.

Michael Jackson and I talk all the time. I think we understand each other in a way that most people can't understand either of us.

I'm the most out-of-work actor I know. In the last two years I've basically taken meetings for a living.

It's a place where I could do something on a weekly basis and see if I like it.

I did 14 movies in six years, I had a cartoon TV show, and I don't want to do that again. I just want to make unique pieces of art. That's why I quit everything when I was 14 and sat around for eight years before I did another movie.

They put it on the page because it sounded good or it looked good or they read it in a book somewhere that this is how you structure a script or something, and they just don't get it. It's surprising.

He was so excited. He cut out pictures of these landscapes and neighborhoods and kind of really tried to give you a feel of the movie. It was kind of cute but at the same time it really showed his enthusiasm for it.

A lot of people meet me and they're like, 'Why aren't you crazy?'

Acting found me. I thought maybe I should try to find it again. We'll see.

After seeing 'Big,' I wanted an elevator that opened directly into my apartment, just like Tom Hanks did.

All the child-star cliches, I've tried very hard to avoid them all.

As a senior in high school, you figure out what you want to do with your life. I asked myself if I wanted to get back into acting and thought: 'Yes, but under my own terms and nothing like it was before.'

Gosh, I couldn't even talk right until I was about 6 years old or something like that.

I can go to any restaurant without a reservation, but while I'm there, everyone's gonna be staring.

I do have a family, and I do have friends, and so-called friends, and acquaintances, and many other people I see only around Christmas time. Maybe they could vouch for me. Maybe they could testify to my existence and save a part of me that thinks I'm no better than a bag of potato chips.

I don't even know how to define myself. I'm a person who writes. It's something I enjoy, and hopefully people enjoy it as well.

I enjoy my life. I think I have a very good life. And I think I'm very satisfied with the direction of my career and just my lifestyle and everything like that. So I wouldn't change a single thing.

I felt like I had two fathers. I had my real father and the father in my head.

I get carded for soda, you know, when I go to the supermarket. I mean, they card me for everything. You know, I can't even get through a hand of black jack without getting carded, like, five times.

I had all the fame anyone could want, and I ran away from it.

I have a lot of growing up to do, or a lot of growing down. I think that's probably more appropriate.

I have no control over people's perceptions of me at all and that's one of the things I decided very early on is that I can't control the way other people think of me. All I can do, especially when it comes to my career is go out there and do cool unique kinds of things.

I hope people don't think I'm crazy, because I'm not.

I lead a simple life. I feed the fish. I walk the dogs. I cook dinner. Occasionally I take a meeting.

I remember sitting one time doing 100 interviews in a day, and they're all television interviews and they're kind of - and you just sit there and they bring these people in and out, and in out.

I try not to label myself anything, really, but you know, I'm definitely an indoorsy person, and I definitely kind of just try to, you know, stay away from life in the public eye, at least.

I'd made enough made money by the time I was 12 to never work again, so it's not about a big pay check with me.

I'd made enough money by the time I was 12 to never have to work again.

I'm not expecting the American literary community to welcome me with open arms. To them I'm just some schmuck kid who wrote some book.

I'm not one of those actors who needs the media spotlight all the time to feel gratified. I'm happy to do one project a year and take the rest of the year off as long as that project is special.

I'm not one of those people who needs that gratification of doing, like, 10 films a year.

I've always said that acting found me. I didn't really find it.

I've led a very isolated existence since I was 6 years old. It's kind of been me and my mind.

If I find cool, open-minded people, want to do unique one-of-a-kind kind of project, I'll do it as long as I can.

It drives me crazy when your parents try to read your mind. It's even worse when they try to read your mail.

It took me ten minutes to write this very sentence. I'm no writer. This is not my calling.

It's about finding unique, one-of-a-kind films that I would want to see myself. I think 'Party Monster' is one of those.

It's like, I don't think you understand, Michael Jackson's bedroom is two stories and it has, like, three bathrooms and this and that. So, when I slept in his bedroom, yes, but you understand the whole scenario.

Math is one of my favorite subjects.

Most of the offers I get from Hollywood are for teen comedies. My manager thinks I'm crazy for turning down all that money, but I'm very picky.

My father was overbearing. Very controlling. He was always the way he is, even before my success. He was not always a good person. He'd play mind games to make sure I knew my place. I don't see him, which is unfortunate. But I don't have any desire to see him. I vaguely know where he is, and I don't want to know.

Oh wow, you know what's wrong with all these families on TV? All these kids say stuff no kid would say. Stuff grown-ups want them to say. Man, I'd make a really realistic family. Where kids get spankings. On TV parents say, 'Oh, you shouldn't do that ever again. Now you can have ice cream.' Forget it.

People do bad things in their lives. And those sort of things are forgivable. That's half the point of having confession in church - you need to be able to fess up to what you've done.