I hate big government; I hate being told what to do on a personal basis.
I have no ambitions to be a cabinet minister, or prime minister. I wouldn't wish being prime minister on my worst enemy.
The way I meditate is by being organised. I can get real Zen if I go home and tidy the front room.
I think people need fantasy, but I think they also need to know that they're not being lied to. I think sometimes the fantasy can betray people and become more difficult for people's lives than just truth. I can't stand delusion. Delusion makes me sick.
Reading scripts or commercial copy isn't a problem for me, so I can really focus on the acting instead of it being secondary.
I love heights. I love speed. I'm on the verge of being a pyromaniac. Maybe my phobia is boredom.
After being nearly eradicated from the lower 48 states by the 1960s, bald eagles were re-introduced to the Adirondacks in the 1980s, and I'm proud to report the view from my home indicates they are flourishing in upstate New York.
When I stopped playing hockey and started acting, the last person I was going to ask for help was my dad. He's the king of being like, 'I don't know. It's good work if you can get it. Good luck.'
The English may love gardening and fishing, but they have never struck me as being close to nature. Their way of expression is 'the hollyhocks are awfully good' sort of thing, all done in very good taste. The savagery of nature is something they don't dwell upon.
For me, Twitter works best as a way of taking pictures of being stuck in traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. If people really want to read really funny quips about life, parenting, and pop culture, then by all means read Michael Ian Black's tweets.
Whenever I think of how much pleasure I have interviewing scientists, I remember that they're having the real fun in actually being able to do the science.
Sometimes I just wonder if I'm being led by variety. If one film leads me down one path, sometimes I just want to turn around and head the opposite way for the next project. I hope that's not the case, but sometimes I suspect that.
I guess if you're independent, not afraid of much, and extremely stylish, that makes you a pretty good candidate for being a New Yorker.
Being Christian towards poor people means trying to improve their lives and give them back some self-respect.
When I heard that 'Roots' was being remade, my first response was, 'Seriously?' I was a bit skeptical. Then I had an audition in early 2015. I didn't know how to feel about it. I was a little scared of the responsibility of telling the story again with the weight of the first one behind me - I was scared of comparisons.
In social settings, under the guise of joking, being collegial, flirting, or having a good time, I undoubtedly caused some women to question themselves, retreat, feel alone, and worry they can't be their authentic selves.
Sherlock is a portrait of humanity - he takes nature's gift of thought and runs with it, bringing along all the human struggles, fears, and insecurities. He's the hero we could see ourselves being.
Never mind money; the gifts of time and skill call into being the richest marketplace in the world.
I think our culture has gotten so skewed. People assume that because you're an actor you want to write a book to exploit your celebrity, but my celebrity is only a byproduct of me making movies. I have no intention of being a celebrity.
I was a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, and my neighbor was Michael Novak, a theologian and philosopher who has written about issues like the morality of capitalism and the Christian roots of free markets. It's possible to be fascinated intellectually with the Christian heritage without being devout.
Shaming is powerful and useful. I'm living in New York, and my instinct is that, after the Black Lives Matter protests, which were organized on social media, the chance of there being another Eric Garner, choked to death in New York by an NYPD officer, has diminished.
I think I'm a bit less inhibited, and not thinking too much before speaking. It's not about being shameful, I'm just a bit more unabashedly myself because of this thing, and it probably started at age 15. I can be around people and say what I think without fear.
One of the fun things about being an actor is stepping outside yourself and outside of your own experience. It's challenging yourself to totally commit to something that in your core is so wrong.
I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, 'There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of being a movie star.' But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
I'm not angry; I write about angry characters. When I'm doing that, I'm happy. Just like when I'm writing about Mickey Sabbath being lustful, I'm not feeling lustful; I'm happy.
The story about GE that hasn't been told is the value of an informal place. I think it's a big thought. I don't think people have ever figured out that being informal is a big deal.
In some ways, Israel has achieved a peace. There are fewer rockets being sent into Sderot, there are no rockets to speak of from the North, there has been very little terrorism from the West Bank. It's a kind of peace. I hope for a better and more enduring peace. Peace is not an endgame; we will never be completely at peace.
No human quality belongs to only one class of person. We all get to be both aggressive and loving. We all get to delight in our careers and revel in our children. We're all kind and brave, soft and hard, sciency and artsy, interested in being looked at and in admiring others' physical form. Everything.
Unless the issue of the empowerment of women is addressed, the practice of women being unfairly treated will remain unresolved.
I distinctly remember being very young, sixth grade maybe, and being at a party and hearing the mothers discuss the children. And the mothers said, 'Well, it's very clear who's the leader in the group.' And they were talking about me!
One of the nice things about being busy is it makes you focus on what's important to you and how you use your time.
I don't really read the tabloids, and you never know if what's being printed is true or not.
I try to put on a show while being effective because the spectators come to be entertained by beautiful play.
Being a pop star is something I don't think I'm very good at. I'm worried it's making me too paranoid, because all of a sudden, life has become this constant assessment. When you put something out there and people get to hear it, then those people react to it, socially, culturally.
People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children's book. I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book', but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.
