I think every young actor in Los Angeles went up for that role. It was between Frankie Muniz and me, and he pulled out, so I got the role.

I'm very picky and I'm in a situation where it's a big crossover.

No, I was an unknown when I walked in that room. He didn't know who I was from a fly on the wall.

Now my dad is with me, traveling with me and a big part of this whole thing is I like to mix it up a little bit, you know. Who gets to take their father on a private jet across the country and stay in first class hotels? So we're enjoying it, but I'd stop if it's not possible.

I didn't know my dad for a long time. My dad was on drugs and my dad was at the VA Hospital, my dad was off in his own world selling drugs or using them or there would be crack heads in the house or whatever it would be.

My neighborhood was rough, but I live a great life now. I don't fight that much now. I don't look for it anyway, but if someone hits your mother, whether you're a star, an accountant, or an astronaut or anything... I mean it's your mother, so I lost my mind.

We did this two-week boot camp before we filmed the movie. I got to know everybody in the group and we became friends. We got really tight throughout those two weeks.

When you look at golf films before us they're all - garbage or satire. A lot of sports films tend to vilify the opposition. Where the opposition becomes this big angry monster, so big you can't beat him.

Respected, I almost want to be revered, that's what I'm chasing.

But this is a little different. This is the adult acting. This is a different crowd. It's more work and more good work. That's it. People will have their opinion regardless.

You never really meet a human being until you live with them or know them for awhile, so this is my clown and they understand that and so these interviews don't bother them.

There's never been a parent in my life.

I understand why marriages break up over golf. I can't even talk about my own handicap because it's too upsetting.

I turned down twelve films last year... Huge money films, but I had no respect for the writer or the work.

I want my audience to know me for my work, not because of who I'm dating or what drugs I'm on or what club I went to.

You can't buy back your respect; you can't buy back your career. You only get one, so I don't want to mess that up.

And yeah, my handicap was down to a 10 when we were at the thick of it. I trained for six or seven months, golfing every day for six hours, seven days a week, with eight trainers. It was intense.

I've been in fights, but that doesn't make me cool or like a tough guy or more interesting actor, I'm not proud of it.

I turned down a scholarship to Yale. The problem with college is that there's a tendency to mistake preparation for productivity. You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you'll never be successful.

My family, my parents are hippies.

Clubs are so lame. Nobody even dances at these clubs. They stand around and get drunk and they schmooze. There is no enjoyment factor.

I'm not an Adonis, that's for damn sure. I've never really thought of myself that way, and it doesn't matter to me. My favorite actors aren't Adonises. Dustin Hoffman is a flawed-looking man; he's amazing to me. Tom Hanks is flawed-looking; people love him. Same with Gene Hackman.

I don't know, I just want to be happy. I could be in a hole somewhere. Or I could completely lose it and be some hippy living in the woods with my dad.

I just wish the crowd I was associated with was more passionate about what they were doing and less consumed with the commerce of the art form.

So it's kind of nervous to be in this situation, but at the same time you look at all those actors and the work that they've done, I've been in bigger films than all of them and still kept my integrity and still kept my respect.

And I'm not a personality; otherwise I'd be coming out with an album, performing on MTV. All that stuff is possible and I can do that tomorrow. I just have no need.

They're very, uh, you know, I don't come from the suburbs and a jolly, Disney type of lifestyle. I come from something totally different. And they're cool and bare minimum so it's not always a money issue for me.

I was the only white kid in my neighborhood for most of my youth even in high school, so reverse racism was just as apparent as racism.

I hated golf when we first started, but a big part of the training process was falling in love with this sport, so I went on tour with the UCLA Team.

I think every young actor in Los Angeles went up for that role. It was between Frankie Muniz and me, and he pulled out, so I got the role.

If I have enough money to eat I'm good.

I don't have to live this lavish lifestyle.

I trained more than anybody ever in a golf film ever made - my swing is pretty hot.

And if you're a golfer and you watch a golf film and Matt Damon swing, and it's not great, then you're not going to believe in the golf story, you're not going to believe in the rest of the film. That's the whole movie, so if that swing looks like crap, the movie's crap.

No, I come for a hippy lifestyle, it's very open; my parents are both hippies.

I think there's a form of honesty, because I used to be very honest with the press, and then it backfired on me, and I understood it.

A lot of people like to think that golf is a lazy man's sport. Or it's a rich man's sport, or it's a sport that they can't be involved in.

A relationship to me is never about the romance.

Actors live dependent on being validated by other people's opinions. I don't understand what it is I do that people want. I don't know what an actor does. I have no credentials. I don't know what I'm doing.

Adversity has a way of introducing a man to himself.

Agents are used to the parents pimping. They're not used to the kid pimping.

All of the things that have happened in my life have been self-propelled. I can't blame anybody else or point a finger at anybody.

Animation has completely changed, and I've always been a big fan.

Any time you're a type, your career's over.

As an actor, the minute you start getting real in interviews, you lose mystery.

At this point I have enough money to live 25 lifetimes. You couldn't spend the money I've accrued now.

Comics, for me, is being able to sing alone in the shower. I find it freeing. You just pick up a pen and get to it.

Crime is sexy.

Every actor chooses their story at the beginning.