The bar raises as you go.

We thought sex was free. Sex is not free. There's a price to be paid emotionally, physically, even legally. Sex isn't a casual thing. It's a huge thing.

I think I've been in situations where they looked at me and just see some rich white guy - they don't see me at all.

I got an agent. He said, what do you wanna do, and I said, I want an Oscar nomination. That's your job, that's what I'm paying you for. And I got it.

I'll tell you this about the Oscars - they're real.

There are some older women out there who are just knockouts, real beauties, and they're not getting the roles they should.

The bar raises as you go.

I'm really proud of the writing on Door to Door, and I think that's the Emmy that meant the most - the writing.

That red carpet has to be felt to be believed.

Oh yeah, that's the Holy Grail, Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp, he's the real deal, isn't he? He doesn't get the girl, and he doesn't care.

I'm a firm believer that character is highly overrated. Character is a trick that we do with the audience's collusion.

I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him.

When I watch a film I get swept away. I don't really watch the camera.

We must admit that it is quite common that people do have affairs with their leading ladies and men.

Directors work 10 times harder than anyone else. Get paid a quarter.

We all want to be 20 again and have that first sense of love.

I'm not against watching myself, but I miss a lot of it. I've got two little kids who we don't let watch TV.

Nobody became an actor because he had a good childhood.

Everyone hooks up with George Clooney. He's a genuinely cool guy. He's using his powers for good.

When I was in New York, I was making a living. We had a summer house and a car that I could put in a garage. That's something for a stage actor.

The only people who do plays in LA are people who can't get jobs in TV shows.

I'm sure I have a process, but it mostly takes place in my dreams.

A favorite cast? Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and my wife.

Yeah, I made it. It sneaks up on you. You're some schmuck and you wake up one day and you go, Good God, I'm the cheese.

It started with the Godfather, this operatic violence. I don't know.

When Fargo came out, I hired a publicist for the first time in my life. I thought, if ever I was going to make it, that was then.

Ninety percent of the preparation we do as actors is just jive. It doesn't do anything.

I do them all for the money, I really do.

I have a tendency to say yes to a script or no to a script. Not yes based on a rewrite.

The Spirit Awards are great too, they'll say anything because they're not televised. Another great drinking night.

I think theater is powerful. The best experiences I had in the theater are more powerful than the best experiences I had in movies.

Stephen King writes a lot of things that are really charming and quirky, and that are more ironic than horror.

If I like the story and it's well written, and it's a character I want to play and they'll pay me, then I decide to do it.

Shameless is a rough show, and it's not for everyone, but it's also beautiful.

It's hard to be depressed around a ukulele. You just pick it up and you're halfway home.

It's kind of a crazy thing to decide that you're going to be worth tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars and set out to do that. It doesn't suit everybody.

Wine is bottled poetry.

You can find my book at your favorite bookstore, and if it isn't there, find a new favorite.

Good girls go to heaven bad girls go everywhere.

Terms like 'good' and 'bad' are extremely simplistic in what is a far more complex situation.

Modernism is typically defined as the condition that begins when people realize God is truly dead, and we are therefore on our own.

Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is himself the way.

He is so unlucky that he runs into accidents which start out to happen to somebody else.

Everything seems set up for success in digital journalism - money, eyeballs, software, brands.

Dreams do come true if you work hard and you get your head down.

Why is it our business whether Sarah Palin returned to her job as governor three days after her son was born, or three months? Is there a right answer?

I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American.

Like everyone else who makes the mistake of getting older, I begin each day with coffee and obituaries.

When we give up on our dreams, we die while still alive.