I got to Broadway a year after I came to New York. I starred in 'Butterflies Are Free' and got a Tony for it. Right out of the gate. Maybe that's why I wasn't very gracious about it. I wasn't driven. And right after 'Butterflies Are Free', I got married and then started a family. I always wanted that.
I was amazed at the support that I got when I was in there. And when I came out people knew that I was back on track. I was interested in working again.
I played Little League. I was a 'pitcher.' But we had a pitching machine, so I was just basically an 'in-infield' shortstop because all I got to do was field bloopers six feet from the plate. I couldn't hit, so that was pretty much my entire job.
There's no way that I could do a 9 to 5 job. There's no way. I was not cut out for that. You come in and you work for three months on the one job. They say, 'Great,' you know, and you're on to the next one - and you never even got fired. It's wonderful.
My parents told us how they felt but never imposed their beliefs on us, although I appreciate I got a healthy sense of democracy from them.
I've slept with a couple of people and made some poor choices and put things in jeopardy with... what I was happy with, and that's my own fault. I've got no one else to blame about that stuff.
But I like all the books. You've got to read them all to get the complete Harry Potter experience.
Because you know how you say I've got to really get down and really do some training and then of course, you never do or you do it for a couple of weeks and slough it back off again but I'm being forced to do something that I really want to do and I loved it.
Well, there are certain words and emotions I don't want kids hearing, and I'm not changing because they think it's going to sell better. This is going to sound horrible, but I got 12 million votes doing what I did.
You've got these big studio films and these tiny independent films now. It's very much either/or. With the independent films, it's always a beautiful risk - it might never be seen. With the studio films, you're conforming to the formula of what's always been in place.
Boy, do I got some stories to tell.
You've got to be success minded. You've got to feel that things are coming your way when you're out selling; otherwise, you won't be able to sell anything.
Americans are so spoiled. They think you always have to have a car, whereas I got away on my own two feet.
Now I don't want to feel cornered as an actor, because I've got a wider range than that.
On every film, there are producers all over the place, and everyone's got to have an opinion. I think the screenplay is a beautiful form with great potential, but the environment around it is awful for a writer.
My first year of college was tough. I thought that just being an athlete I could get by. I thought I was okay until I got kicked out, which happened twice.
I remember that when I got to NYU, everyone was writing scripts. But I was 18 at the time, and when you write a script, so much of it is about what you pull from life, and this sounds sort of cheesy, but I felt like I didn't have enough life experience at that point to write a movie.
John McCain knows as well as anyone that Sarah Palin has no business being anywhere near the Oval Office. I'm sorry, it's got nothing to do with the fact that she wears skirts - she's grossly unqualified.
I was stuck with looking like a girl. As soon as I got out of music it was straight off to the hairdressers.
We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they've got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.
I got to go to Malaysia, Germany, Switzerland, Madrid, America.
In order to lead a country or a company, you've got to get everybody on the same page and you've got to be able to have a vision of where you're going. America can't have a vision of health care for everybody, green economy, regulations - can't have a bunch of piece-meal activities. It's got to have a vision.
When you first start out, people think this is super easy and you find your crew super quick. But you've really got to go through songwriter boot camp to find your people.
If you're an old cat around young girls, you got to have somethin' to bring to the table.
It's not that I'm Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes now, but I've got my priorities in order.
I never really got on that well with Yoko anyway. Strangely enough, I only started to get to know her after John's death.
I don't like comedy that I think is bad comedy, where people are trying to be sick for the sake of it, where there's no intellectual point behind it. I like stuff that's got an underlying point of view.
And, you know, you try and preach to them there's more to this game than just walking up to home plate, swinging the bat, fielding a ground ball. There's some dedication in it, some love you've got to put into this work.
Apparently nobody really read it, it was a cheap movie, it fit their schedule in terms of things so fine, let the guy make that high school comedy. I used to work with Mel Brooks so they figured oh it's going to be one of those really silly movies and that's how it got made.
Westerns was why I got into the business. I grew up on a small farm in California and all I ever wanted to do was to play gangsters and cowboys in movies.
It's a life of five-card draw, and you know what? When God asked me - I'm fine with the card I got. I'm gonna play this.
I didn't realize the ceiling that I had, and I don't think a lot of players understand what they're capable of. Some of them dream of what they're capable of, but you don't really understand until you get in the moment and you give it everything you got and see in the end where you can end up.
If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to 'Firefly', make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.
The first time I got recognized in public was at a movie theater. It was at the 'Lord of the Rings' movie premiere. I was at the movie theater, and someone came up, and it was so weird to me, because I had never been recognized by a viewer, so I thought that was scary.
I came to London. I spent nine months doing domestic work and gardening because I knew I wanted to get a West End show. So, when I was offered jobs in Stoke or Leicester or whatever, I'd say no. Eventually, I got 'Godspell.' It was gently building.
My creative partner is a writer, and he's got an executive producing credit on this film. We've made three films together and I would never underestimate the impact of a writer.
