I’ve always said it’s flattering to be desired, just as it’s flattering that people accept the reality of the character you play. But it was always ridiculous to assume that because I could play a gigolo on screen I’d play anything like that role off screen.
There are some problems on this planet that seem to be intractable.
I’ve had an interesting life.
Billions of people don’t practice a religion at all.
Well I think on a simple ecological level that the diversity of this planet is important for our survival, that all of our different cultures, people are important to the health of the whole the same way that a species of animal should be saved and at a simple ecology level.
I tend to be a bit of a dreamer.
People don’t understand what happiness is, so they have an idea of what will make them happy, but it never does.
I honestly do not think about celebrity or image or sexual expectations on me. It only comes up when people have a list of questions. But what I am told is that there is a quality that I have onscreen, where it’s a little bit of everything.
Anything that’s expanding the mind and heart is happiness. But it’s not a goal.
There’s really one character for every actor. The voyage is to find that one character.
I’ve stayed good friends with most of my girlfriends.
It’s not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it’s not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.
Movie acting is primarily listening. If you’re really engaged, that’s all a movie audience wants to see is you processing what’s happening in your world.
If the work is going well and it’s something that has value with some meaning to it, it gives back a lot.
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.
Tibetan Buddhism had an enormous impact on me.
When you work as an actor, you’ve got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.
I’m less needy about needing to express myself through acting. I have many different lives outside of this that are extremely fulfilling.
Certainly there have been better actors than me who have had no careers. Why? I don’t know.
When I started acting, it was really the way for me to be able to communicate.