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.

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.

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.