We all have to have our north star that we fix on and go to, but life is so much about the things that bump into you.
When I do a Western, I often wonder what I would have really done in that situation.
I wanted very much to do Traffic and at one point it looked like I was going to work on it. And then, of course, Catherine Zeta-Jones had her relationship with Michael Douglas and it suddenly didn’t happen.
We still live with this unbelievable threat over our heads of nuclear war. I mean, are we stupid? Do we think that the nuclear threat has gone, that the nuclear destruction of the planet is not imminent? It’s a delusion to think it’s gone away.
If I had a choice of having a woman in my arms or shooting a bad guy on a horse, I’d take the horse. It’s a lot more fun.
I’m glad movies aren’t going to please everybody, they can’t. But what they have to be is recognisable. I don’t equate myself with a master painter, but I think you can recognise my films.
I’m only interested in being a good actor and in being remembered for my best films, not for the way I look. But it seems inevitable in this line of work that I have to care about the way I look without getting obsessed about it.
Money isn’t a major motivating force in my life. Nor is my profession. There are other things that I care more about than being an actor.
I split my time between Santa Barbara and Aspen. I live on a pretty fast horse.
I wouldn’t do the movie unless I thought it had a chance to be good.
If you’re willing to tell somebody that you love them, are you also willing to say you’re sorry? You need to, even when you think you’re in the right.
I like when my face tingles, when the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
I like American history.
If you want to make a great sports movie, don’t put too much sports in it. It’s the backdrop. It’s the environment.
I don’t think I’d have been as good as Bruce was. He was a better JFK than I would have been.
You’re this rat in the American maze, working your way towards the cheese, which is a job.
You have to try to dismiss the loudness of cynicism. It’s certainly going to come.
I always thought the leading actor should be the best supporting actor, because you’re the only person that can help every other actor on the set.
Lincoln was the greatest speaker and he was ridiculed for how he looked, you know?
I’ve been around where I knew other actors were going to steal the scene, and I don’t compete with them.