If you’re going to write, write one poem all your life, let nobody read it, and then burn it. This is very young thinking, I confess, but it is the seminal part of my life.
You make me want to be a better man.
Children give your life a resonance that it can’t have without them.
A man needs a private life. With no ability to have a private life, one thing leads to another, and before you know it we have Bill and Monica. We need to get real about things. Humans are humans. Why should we expect more?
Believe it or not, I supported Richard Nixon on the issue of presidential privilege. How could anyone conceive of being the president of the United States and think that every single thing that you say or do can become a part of the public record? It just seems so stupid to me.
There’s probably no one who understands Method acting better academically than I do, or actually uses it more in his work. But it’s funny – nobody really sees that. It’s perception versus reality, I suppose.
I don’t believe that relationships are fixed things. People are necessarily complex and confused beings. We don’t always do the right thing, say the right, and behave the same way or the way we always want to behave.
I take responsibility for my successes as well as my failures. But when I look at my professional mistakes, I’m always left with the feeling that maybe I should have done more.
When they say I’m a great actor, I close my ears because it’s not good for you to think that way.
I have never felt brutalized as an actor. Many actors do, some times, but I’ve never had that experience. If I’m not happy with the balance, I just won’t work with that person again.
In the real world there’s an after-effect of disappointment if you lose an argument. But if, to begin with, you’re set up not to have this particular autonomy, then you’re not disappointed.
Everybody said I was good, but being known and not having a big film success is almost tougher than being completely new. It just kind of turned my life around and was definitely a highlight.
The first role I ever played I had the lead and it’s pretty much stayed that way, though people take great relish in calling me a character actor, which I am. There are a lot of short parts I could play, but I only do them when they are central to the idea of the movie.
I would never say, “I’m retired.” I believe if I decided to just not work, in six months everybody would just forget whether you were working or not.
I’m fairly well off. I can’t poor-mouth that away from people’s sensibilities about me, which is something I worry about as an actor. But it would be real stupid of me to do something for the money.
Having kids is the most innately positive thing that anyone can do.
Million bucks won’t see you through a major health crisis.
It’s the post-literate generation that is most disturbing to a movie-maker. The explosions and the knifings. People like to go to what’s hot and you can’t get past a certain gross unless you involve children who go more than once.
There are short parts that I as an actor am very right for. Or I just like the part. Or you need someone like me for the movie. By that I don’t mean at the box office, I mean in the execution of the material.
With comedy, you have to do it right. In a drama, there’s a lot of different ways to succeed in a moment. But comedy comes from reality. You can’t try to be funny.
It’s difficult for people sometimes to recognise when they’re happy. People sometimes seem to me to be afraid to be happy.