Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power.
My thing about looking good is that it should be the character. If I'm playing a character who's concerned about his body - an athlete, say - I'll get in shape. If I'm playing a character who doesn't or wouldn't, I don't. I almost never get in shape for a movie, even though I know it would be a good career move.
Well we'd just seen Gerry. I think he wanted somebody who had that authority and was handsome. The thing is, he's a big hunk isn't he? All I can say, if you look at his chat line, or the Phantom website, it's quite worrying. Because the girls really seem to love him.
The American people I talk to don't spend every moment thinking, 'How can I tax my neighbor more than they're being taxed?' They say, 'How can I get a good job? How can my kids get good jobs? How can seniors have a confidence in their future when they know that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt?'
People ask me where I go to get away, and I say 'Home.'
It's become fashionable these days to say that the writer writes because he is not whole, he has a wound, he writes to heal it, but who cares if the writer is not whole; of course the writer is not whole, or even particularly well.
I'm going to go out and get everybody together and say I think we ought to protect this for generations to come. Now, let's get down to work and walk the land and talk about the conflicts and get everybody involved.
With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, 'Can I sing this part,' or, 'I want to play guitar.'
My favorite model of success is when people say, 'Nobody bought that first Velvet Underground album, but everyone who did started a band.'
The only thing that we as actors really can control is to be able to say 'yes' or 'no' to the material.
I love this country, I love these people, though I can't say I love their politicians. People are always nicer than politicians, but here, you can mark that difference up a hundredfold.
I think the 'sunken place' - that term is what I hear when I'm just casually living my life. People say it around me. Not because they're around me; they're saying it because it articulated a state of mind. Lil Wayne's rapped about it.
It's never been difficult for me to say no. I have never given excuses like I don't have dates. I have never over-quoted to avoid a project. I simply say that while the script might be good, I can't connect with it. My strategy is that while I wouldn't want anyone to waste my time, I shouldn't be doing that, either, with others.
I'm a Conservative, but I talk for the ordinary working classes. I get on with the boys at the pub, but I can also mix with Prince Andrew. I understand both levels. The toffs haven't lived in council estates; they've just known big mansions. How can they understand how the postman feels? I would never say no to becoming an MP.
Was there ever such stuff as great as part of Shakespeare? Only one must not say so! But what think you? - What? - Is there not sad stuff? What? - What?
I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.
I've never written a children's book, but when people meet me for the first time and I say I write books, they invariably reply, 'Children's books?' Maybe it's something about my face.
Just do what you want to do and don't worry about what people say.
I think because people are passing - people that we are aware of are passing at - I don't say a great pace, but it seems like people are dropping, and I think it's just making - there's a consciousness and there's sensitivity to it.
You look around the world in 2013, and you say, 'How many prime ministers or presidents are in prison?' One or two. 'How many generals or bankers?' Two or three. 'But how many writers?' 850 or so.
Each year, I say I'm going to go to school next year. It's inevitable that I'll end up getting my education.
I tell you what, I was so shocked because I didn't think the ball had enough to get out. It's an absolutely incredible feeling. I can honestly say I did it.
People say I'm henpecked. Well, let them say it.
I, not for the first time, would like to say that I never took a pro-Iraq position during the Gulf War.
I had no style when I was 17! I look at teenagers now and say, 'I wish I'd looked like them when I was that age.' I had no style whatsoever, but style also wasn't as prominent as it is today. I was just very laid back, usually wearing jeans and tank tops and flip flops.
There are roles I am never considered for. Meryl Streep roles, let's say. Why not? I really wanted to do 'Ironweed,' for example, because the depression era in this country was one of the best for multiracial people, because everybody was poor. Everybody lived in the tents, and under buildings, and under gratings, together.
When we say that Philosophy tries to clear up the meanings of concepts we do not mean that it is simply concerned to substitute some long phrase for some familiar word.
I know this is rather trivial - I will not be very deep about this - but it's great when you call the hottest restaurant in town and ask for a table for five at 8:00 P.M., and they say, 'Okay,' instead of, 'You have to wait two months.'
You see all the movies where people say, 'Don't fight out of anger'? They say that for a reason.
Every time I'd get a job, they'd say: 'You'll be good at loading trucks.' I couldn't explain that there was more to me than carrying things.
We shouldn't have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say.
I think no commander ever is going to come out and say, 'I'm confident that we can do this.'
Everybody is watching you every minute anyways. If they think the message you're sending out is phony, they're going to say, 'Who does he think he is?' It's again good business. But it is also an obligation.
I love the idea of playing a character that didn't over think everything. He knows what's in front of him and he has an ability to just say whatever he felt.
People used to say everyone knows someone who's had breast cancer. In the past few weeks, I've learned something else: Everyone has someone close to them who has had breast cancer.
When you ask people who their favorite comedian is or favorite African-American comedian, people generally say Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, or Richard Pryor. Redd Foxx gets left out a lot.
