In the early part of your career you are always compared with somebody until you can stand on your own two feet.
What's beautiful about the actual acting class environment is that you can use it to push through everything: push your voice, push your inhibitions, push your fears, push your confidence, push your vulnerability, push your silences.
When I was doing 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' I was asked, 'If there was one part of your life that you could erase, what would it be?' And I was so stunned by that. I thought: 'Nothing.' I would keep all the good bits and the bad bits, because those things made me who I am.
The interesting thing is always to see if you can find a fact that will change your mind about something, to test and see if you can.
Temptation's something you have to deal with even if you're not famous. It's harder when you're famous because it's a lot more in your face, and that makes it a little more difficult to walk away from sometimes.
Genre might certainly increase some of your narrative freedoms, but it also diminishes others. That's the nature of genre.
You spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young.
Joe Mauer's the real deal. He is absolutely wonderful. Not only is he a great player, but he's a great human being. He's the kind of guy you'd like to see... be your son.
Warren Buffet told me once and he said always follow your gut. When you have that gut feeling, you have to go with don't go back on it.
If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave.
But, as always, Mr. Rooney would come over and shake your hand and congratulate you on a good game, no matter what the situation was.
Drugs are a bet with your mind.
The great advantage of a novel is you can put in whatever comes into your head - it has the same shape as the human brain.
There are things that you cannot talk to your mother and father about, there are things that you cannot talk to your children about.
God does not require you to follow His leadings on blind trust. Behold the evidence of an invisible intelligence pervading everything, even your own mind and body.
You don't know what a rough crowd is. If all I have to do is go make people laugh, that's nothing. Let me tell you what a tough crowd is. A tough crowd is going to a morning service and you got six people there and you gotta pat your house payment. That's a tough crowd.
If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. The world will be yours and everything in it, what's more, you'll be a man, my son.
The scariest part to any story is the sliver of truth you hide in the horror. Sometimes its not about the axe wielding murder, but the fact that he's lurking somewhere in your basement. Sure, you keep telling yourself that you'll replace the burnt out light every week.
Life's short, you know? Especially as an athlete. Your career is very short, and you use the opportunities that you have because you're not going to have them again.
I had a bad conscience until I discovered that having a bad conscience about something so gravely serious as leaving your children is an affectation, a way of achieving a little suffering that can't for a moment be equal to the suffering you've caused.
It's not like a corporate job where the more you accumulate on your resume and the more hours you put in, the higher up you get; it's simply not the case. That being said, if I had known that and known what kind of career I'd get into, I still would have pursued it.
If you give yourself to your task at once, you won't have to do it twice.
I think it's going to be a very important, unique data set in terms of measuring the behavior of your lower body in space and trying to figure out what we can do to preserve bone and muscle density.
You become judged entirely on your ability to bring in the dollars, and the fact that none of the films I did was a huge hit became significant.
Most people are excited about themselves. Personal genome will deliver for inexpensively something about science to which you can relate. Just like computers are becoming something to which you can relate. It should be even easier to relate to your own biology, and I hope that will be one of the ways we get broader literacy in science.
The president said, 'You've got to vote your conscience.
I tell you how I feel and how we're going to solve it. That's my unique personality and that's how I carry myself. It is different from most people, but when something comes out of your mouth, people tend to listen more.
Everyone wants to be happy - people find happiness in different ways. While you want to pursue your career 100 percent, I think it is very hard to give 100 percent in something else. It's important to find this balance, and priorities change throughout life.
It's hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don't always know who to call. So I am very close to my family.
If you lose a big fight, it will worry you all of your life. It will plague you - until you get your revenge.
Performers like to perform, and there's certainly no disgrace in entertaining people, in giving pleasure, you hope, through your singing. My work defines who I am.
You get spoiled on 'Captain America,' where your trailer's two blocks long and it's got three bedrooms.
The best part of being on a television series for all those years is that you really get to hone your craft.
Listen to the silence. Listen to your life. Be present, not just think about what's going on next week, next month.
I think it is important to maintain your personality, your roots, very important.
You can't plan to write a great song. It just happens to you. It drops in your lap. It's the same thing with a woman.
