When I started acting, it was really the way for me to be able to communicate.

Maybe the Dalai Lama is the only person who is totally honest, and even with him, he's skillful not to hurt anybody. He's skillful.

If the work is going well and it's something that has value with some meaning to it, it gives back a lot.

Western Buddhists in many ways are much serious Buddhists than Tibetans are.

I'm less needy about needing to express myself through acting. I have many different lives outside of this that are extremely fulfilling.

My first encounter with Buddhist dharma would be in my early 20s. Like most young men, I was not particularly happy.

The Dalai Lama said that he thinks mother's love is the best symbol for love and compassion, because it is totally disinterested.

I don't think that bravery is about skin. Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need.

Billions of people don't practice a religion at all.

All of our energy should be in sacrifice and services. Suffering, at least.

What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love.

When you work as an actor, you've got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.

The secret of my success is my hairspray.

Tibetan Buddhism had an enormous impact on me.

Certainly there have been better actors than me who have had no careers. Why? I don't know.

When His Holiness won the Nobel Peace Prize, there was a quantum leap. He is not seen as solely a Tibetan anymore; he belongs to the world.

Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.

In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters.

I'm a 50 year-old guy and I'm not in shape like I was when I was 30.

There's really one character for every actor. The voyage is to find that one character.

I'm not that tough; I'm not that smart. I need life telling me who I am, showing me my mind constantly. I wouldn't see it in a cave.

In a way, one gets stability from being able to order the rational mind.

Even in comedies, you've got to feel safe for things to just happen in a way that is natural and free, and recognizable as human.

I don't know any of us who are in relationships that are totally honest - it doesn't exist.

There is nothing real about film. Nothing. Even the light particles that project the film can't be proven to exist. Nothing is there.

Everyone responds to kindness.

I cry every chance I get.

I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn't mean that they are the best ones to do it.

I can't say I have control over my emotions; I don't know my mind. I'm lost like everyone else. I'm certainly not a leader.

When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it's because of karma, some past connection.

I'm voting for Gore because the other is unthinkable. Which most of us will probably do. I hope all of us. I've always liked Ralph Nader and would like to see a real third party, but the thought of George Bush as president is unthinkable.

When I started acting, it was really the way for me to be able to communicate.

Everyone seems to think they know what acting techniques are. Techniques just help you get to a certain place, but if the thing is happening just by itself, you don't need those techniques.

From a Buddhist point of view, emotions are not real. As an actor, I manufacture emotions. They're a sense of play. But real life is the same. We're just not aware of it.

I have a lot of beautiful friends.

I have no sense of time, and I'm a dreamer.

I meet human beings who are flawed, who are mentally ill and have enormous problems, but I don't think I've ever met someone who was a totally dark energy that had no humanity or sense of love or affection for anything in their life. That's very rare.

I think life is self-examination. Certainly the voyage that one takes.

I think most of our religious institutions are pretty corrupt, so they're not reliable. I think the Christian religion that I was brought up with has very little to do with Christ, really, and more an institutions that have built up around the church.

I would rather be loved than have money and all that other stuff.

I would say that the West is very young, it's very corrupt. We're not very wise. And I think we're hopeful that there is a place that is ancient and wise and open and filled with light.

I'm younger than I once was. Internally. Less self-conscious. Less insecure.

I've got a lot of opportunities, a lot of love in my life, a lot of things going for me. Still, it's not complete. I know this is not the whole thing. There's much more.

I've had an interesting life.

I've stayed good friends with most of my girlfriends.

In the process of developing a character, you do, in fact, start to take him on as a personality.

It's nice to have money, but the first thing I did with money was buy my father a snow-blower, because my job was to shovel snow, and I wasn't there to do it any more, so I was able to buy him a blower.

Mindfulness is a quality that's always there. It's an illusion that there's a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you're either mindful or you're not.

People don't understand what happiness is, so they have an idea of what will make them happy, but it never does.