If you have one good idea, people will lend you twenty.
As my dad said, you have an obligation to leave the world better than how you found it. And he also reminded us to be givers in this life, and not takers.
Obviously there are times with acting when exactly what is required is just going through the motions, and when doing nothing is the best thing. But at other times, you have to make that leap beyond the immediate environment of people putting up lights on the set.
Be kind. It's worthwhile to make an effort to learn about other people and figure out what you might have in common with them. If you allow yourself to be somewhat curious - and if you get into the habit of doing that - it's the first step to being open minded and realizing that your points of view aren't totally opposite.
In my vocal, I think you can hear something of my earlier times when I'd sing in subway halls for the echo and perform doo-wop on street corners. But I had a lot of influences, too - singers like Sam Cooke, Brook Benton and Roy Hamilton.
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
When I was growing up, I was so fascinated by Mel Blanc and all of the different voices that he did for 'Looney Tunes' and watching Robin Williams record voice-over for the genie in 'Aladdin.' It always seemed to be a major honor - something you have to earn. Like people trust you when they want to have you there without seeing you.
You are - all your experience just kind of accumulates, and the novel takes a richness of its own simply because it has the weight of all those years that one's put into it.
This China trade deal is basically like the Bobby Knight of trade deals. You know, you abuse, you abuse, you abuse, and then they say 'Well, OK, we'll let you try one more time.'
It used to be if you wanted something nice to wear, you would sew it yourself for your body type. Women before the 20th century didn't have this problem. Now, it seems we're all squeezed into random designs. They're designed for no one.
Humor can help you cope with the unbearable so that you can stay on the bright side of things until the bright side actually comes along.
Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution.
I go to the Natural History Museum and look at the cage of stuffed starlings there. But my favourite thing is the big blue whale. The scale of it is unbelievable, and makes you feel how insignificant you are as a human being.
A thing that really troubles me about a more polarized society is that you stop having a sense of society and citizenship.
I love the shot put because you win or lose by yourself. Either I get exposed, or I dominate. I always dominated because I trained to dominate.
But you do have to start young as a dancer if you're going to achieve the physical skills necessary.
I generally always eat what I want. I think when you work out a lot, you can afford to eat more because your body's metabolism is higher. I like healthy food and prefer that anyways, but if I want pizza or a can of Coca-Cola every once in a while, I'm going to have it. I just try to have a few slices, and that's it.
Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.
I don't want people to sit there and objectively watch the film. I want them to experience it as something that's under their skin, so you try to make the films really tactile.
I was a huge theater geek growing up, and that was not the easiest thing in the world, especially growing up in Chicago, where sports are really the norm. I was always off to the theater at night, from 7 years old on. Friends there in the Midwest who could talk to you about the idiosyncrasies of 'Pippin' were few and far between.
The idea of doing something that you've seen a thousand times before doesn't appeal to me.
I criticize those critics. The reason being that they're doing one of the worst things that ever can be done to an actor, which is to say, Look, you do what we like you to do or else.
I'm not a director who feels I should be in your face all the time. I really want you to watch the actors and listen to the play.
With memoir, you have the clay of your life to work with. When you're writing a novel, you have to make the clay first.
You know that's history, that's why some people say that my stuff is retro, but I don't agree.
That's easy to answer: I never had any special appetite for filmmaking, but you have to make a living and it is miraculous to earn a living working in film.
I never prayed for no money, and I never prayed for no fame. I said, 'I'll take care of that myself. You just keep me healthy and I'll do all I can to try to turn people around, to try to steer 'em in the right direction.' That's the whole trip in life, ya know.
There's this index that tallies up how much your movies have made, and if they haven't grossed a certain amount, then you're not bankable. I know I'm not Will Smith but, you know, my ranking's pretty low. The only studio picture I've done is 'Zodiac,' and that didn't perform that well.
If you had found the right candidate in 2000 or 2004, and you could have put that man or woman, given them ballot access in September of the election year, they could have won the election.
Do the best you can with yourself and hope for the best.
It allows you to say things that sound very dramatic and get away with it. If you had characters in modern fiction say the same things as they're driving down the street in an Oldsmobile they'd sound ludicrous!
I think I'm lucky that I had kids as spread out as much as I did, 'cause my son, my oldest, was born when I was 21. And my youngest is 15 now. He was born when I was 40, you know?
Any time you sign a big contract, you get in those later years, the expectations are high to play at a high level.
It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.
I'm in no hurry to get anywhere. I don't have any plans. I don't have a map. If you did in this business, you'd destroy yourself.
