I don't like to come at my character from some really technical place.
People spend so much time in their cars, and it's a legal way to have fun by speeding a little bit or testing yourself a little bit, and you get to invest in your car. For some people, it becomes their baby.
In many of the things that people do, they themselves are the centre of attention, but they inscribe some other name on their banner.
I came in with my idea of what a cowboy would wear, but then I met some real cowboys and they said that I rode the horses well, shoed the horses, but no good cowboy would be wearing a pair of Levi's. I had to get a good old pair of Wranglers.
I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled; That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.
When I started this project, I was a young architect. I was very apprehensive about any changes to the design. Whether I wanted to or not, I learned that you can accept some changes to its form without compromising its intent. But it's a leap of faith that I didn't want to make initially - to put it mildly.
I have had unattractive heroes - broken noses, scars, crooked teeth. You want to give them something that is human. My heroines struggle with being too short or fat or old. Some are older than the heroes. You try to cover all spectrums.
There are many great fighters in the UFC; some of my favorites are Rodrigo Nogueira, Lyoto Machida, and B. J. Penn, but aside from these guys, the UFC has many great fighters in every division.
Some people do better on their own. I don't.
I'm still friendly with Dean. He still calls me on the phone from time to time. John Dean was fired and later ended up spending some time in prison for his role in Watergate.
If you ask me about my views on the environment, on women's rights, on gay rights, I am liberal. I don't have a problem with that at all. Some of my best friends are liberal.
Some women are naturally thin. But there needs to be an appreciation for a variety of types of women because we don't all come in one package. We're not pre-destined to all be a size six.
Too many radio stations, all they do is syndicated programming, it's just piped in from some satellite someplace, and they don't have much of a connection to the community.
I think some of the best music throughout the actual history of music itself came from cultures where they're not really looking for outside themes. It's developed from their hometowns - it's what they love and what they love to do.
Vinyl is the real deal. I've always felt like, until you buy the vinyl record, you don't really own the album. And it's not just me or a little pet thing or some kind of retro romantic thing from the past. It is still alive.
It's a very big world with some very big characters. And, boy, do you have to be able to stand up for yourself when you walk into a working men's club and negotiate a loan.
I suppose the place where I live is fairly remote, it would seem remote to some people.
There is hardly any one so insignificant that he does not seem imposing to some one at some time.
And I sense it was a rather constructed, almost half narrative fiction film in some ways. A lot of it was staged and manipulated to get those things in there that I knew to be strong.
Apart from its dangers, much of Iraq isn't very interesting to look at. The landscape is flat and dun colored. The dirt just beyond the highway is littered with hunks of twisted and mangled metal, some of it the detritus of wars, some of it just unclaimed junk. The countryside looks muddy and broken.
A good balance of winning and losing is important. If you just win all the time, you won't get anything out of it; having some tough losses can be really important.
Some years ago, I was fortunate enough to land a reporting job at 'The Washington Post,' which pretty much put me in a state of constant awe. Bob Woodward would dish up ice cream sundaes for anyone stuck working on the weekend.
When you're still, and some actors are really brilliant at that, you bring a kind of energy to you as opposed to sending the energy out. There are some actors, like Gary Cooper or Kevin Spacey, that are absolutely brilliant - Gene Hackman is another - at being and allowing the audience to just do the work.
It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.
The work that I do with all of my characters is have some sense of where they come from. I kind of create my own story for myself. What's going on with my parents? Are they alive? Or family - do I have children? Do you see those things or not?
From a good lie in the middle of a fairway bunker, I'll make the same swing as I do from an average fairway lie. I'll dig my feet in slightly and keep my lower body stable so I won't slip, but I don't change my club selection or setup. It's only when the ball is sitting down in the sand that I'll make some modifications.
If some people didn't tell you, you'd never know they'd been away on a vacation.
I know it's not the '80s anymore, but the '80s are back with a vengeance. Get yourself some neon; whether it's a cute sneaker, a pump or a cross-body bag, add to your wardrobe a pop of neon.
I'm inspired by antiques. I look at things that have a wink to the past but are also reinterpreted in some way and made to feel modern... and maybe that's what I am.
You develop a third eye where you kind of know where they are in a room at all times but no matter how vigilant you are as a parent, at some point, you'll look around a room and can't find them and there's a searing pain that goes through your body.
I'm real bent on dialogue. I'm just a little bit crazy and when you put that along with 20 years as a criminal lawyer, it's pretty easy to come up with some interesting plots.
Almost 50 years old now, some 30 years after graduation, I look at my Caltech classmates and conclude that math whizzes do not take over the world.
And some places you been before are so great that you don't ever mind going back. Some places you been before you don't ever want to go back, you know, like Montreal in the Winter.
There are always some doubts when you do a new album though. You wonder whether you succeeded or not, especially when you waited as long as I did for this one - seven years. You're never really sure if it will be a nice record or not.
In life we shall find many men that are great, and some that are good, but very few men that are both great and good.
I think, doing a first film, at some point you get halfway through, and you wonder, 'Is this is good enough to define who I am for the coming decade?'
