Being on a book tour is a lot easier than reporting.
We've used up a lot of bullets. And we talk about stimulus. But the truth is, we're running a federal deficit that's 9 percent of GDP. That is stimulative as all get out. It's more stimulative than any policy we've followed since World War II.
I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.
I feel bad about a lot of the movies I see that teach kids that if they do bad, they'll win.
A lot of the motivation for doing the 'Make 'Em Laugh' on SNL was because I had just finished shooting 'Inception,' where there were zero-gravity scenes and I got into really good shape and was training and did all these stunts. Coming off of that, that instilled me with the confidence to do 'Make 'Em Laugh.'
I feel a lot. I get really bad stomachaches all the time. So I went to a doctor, and he said, 'You're a feeler.' I take on people's pain a little too much.
I got to do a lot of good things at a young age. I really kind of knocked out my bucket list when I was really young.
A lot of people have no access to beauty. When I was growing up, my mother had only a few pretty things to look at.
I was going to visit IBM for six months as a visiting scientist. Now, six months is a lot of time, so I came with a whole list of projects that I might want to work on.
A lot of players might be tired, but I feel nice and sharp.
It's fun to pick a cuisine and say I'm going to research Ethiopian food, and see what it's all about. You find that there are a lot of similarities in cuisines from around the world and a lot of similar flavors.
The fact that I have a Southern accent and write about a lot of rural things leads people to put me in the country category.
There was a certain feeling I developed as a young person for black people. Somehow they were able to get pleasure out of things that I couldn't see them enjoying. I heard them sing a lot, and I didn't hear white folks going down the cotton rows singing that much.
Accepting that the world is full of uncertainty and ambiguity does not and should not stop people from being pretty sure about a lot of things.
I've received a lot of compliments. People come right up to me on the street. They recognize me.
Today's uses of the Second Amendment may invoke James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, but they have a lot more to do with interest-group politics.
There are a lot of really great cartoonists out there. It's nice to be thought of as one of them.
That's my fun time so, to me, doing my homework, studying on what I do, watching the movies, listening to music, all that inspires me so I focus a lot on that and practice.
But the longer I'm in the business, you see a lot of times these screenplays have been rewritten 5 times and you're not really offending an author.
The Russians have a lot at stake, and the power of Moscow pride should never be underestimated.
In terms of asking questions, I plead guilty. I ask a hell of a lot of questions. That's my job.
Having a lot of people suddenly depending on me to get the job done was a marvelous motivator. The book and movie deals seemed to flip a switch in my head, and off I went.
Foxes was a movie that didn't do a lot of business but it didn't do too badly critically and eventually they offered me other things. The interesting thing was that next I tried a film called Star Man, which Michael Douglas was producing.
The first thought that I had about really trying to get sober was, 'Man, I could do a lot of good in the world. I can lead by example and just be this heroic recovery guy.' And that's just a bad reason to get sober. You can't get sober for anybody's benefit, let alone the world at large. You really got to do it for yourself.
I love how Jamie Oliver makes seasonal, local foods in a rustic way, without a lot of fuss.
I have to admit that I had a lot of problems with poetry.
I'll get to make a lot of money and do some bad sitcoms.
I like a twisted sense of humour. On 'A History of Violence,' David Cronenberg and I would be doing the grimmest scenes and laugh a lot.
A lot of times in this business, we forget that we're surrounded by a lot of really good people.
There is a lot of stuff I like. I love backpacking. I love going to an island where I can just sit on the beach and read or scuba dive and sail. I do a lot of that. I still go backpacking around Europe in the summers and staying in hostels. I love that.
We give a lot of others significance in our lives even when they don't deserve it. It doesn't matter if they're family or if you've known them forever. If they're not good for you, they've got to go.
A lot of times we work across multiple platforms. We'll go to Japan working on the tsunami for 'Nightly News' and it'll end up on 'Dateline.'
The weird thing about this business - and I'm sure this operates in many other things, but it's very present and acute in this business - is that a lot of people don't realize that they have power. Particularly actors.
I draw from the crowd a lot.
So if I want to buy a light in a shop and I don't find a light that I like, I think to myself what would I like? What would I like to buy? Then I started to imagine and design it for myself a lot of the time.
There's so much to learn about acting and performance in general... I mean, acting is a very complex art, and there are a lot more theories and methods and techniques to it than I think anybody would think.
