I was an infantry Marine, and there are only so many things you can do when you get out of the military that you can apply your job to. Either a janitor or a cop. I tried to do both of those things because what else are you going to do?
I came into politics because I wished to change things. You can't do that by lying to people; you have to educate, and persuade, and carry them with you - and it's often a long haul.
In show business, generally you don't retire. If you love it, that is, you're in it forever anyway.
Don't do another show just because someone thinks that there's a dollar to be earned there. Do it because you love the characters, and you love the world, and you really, truly feel both the fans and you as a storyteller can benefit from having the second show.
Sure, you always put some of your own experience into a film.
You want to be honest with a character and play it truthfully, and you want to be genuine with your character.
In college, you're kind of designing who you want to be. And I wanted to be a big reader.
A woman at the Limited once asked me, 'Why do you work?' She said, 'You made a lot of money as a young man, so why are you still working?' I had never thought about it before. Forced to consider it, I told her, 'You know why? Because I think that if you stop to smell the roses, you'll get hit by a truck.'
You may be guided by the unending effort of poets and artists, biologists and psychiatrists to describe that irreplaceable and still mysterious emotion so essential to the human condition, but all the search engines in the universe cannot compete with the first kiss.
I visualise what I want through meditation. The process of meditating is a great way of making sure I have my priorities sorted. It's not about money - I focus on my career and the kind of film projects I want to do. Film-making is a passion for me, and my mantra is that you should do what you love, and the money will follow.
Now we have so many more social outlets, so many ways to be stalked and bullied. If social media is too much for you to handle, then don't have a Twitter or Facebook account. Just be yourself. Be who you want to be.
The radio is good for taking somebody else's experience and making you understand what it would be like. Because when you don't see someone, but you hear them talking - and, uh, that is what radio is all about - it's like when someone is talking from the heart. Everything about it conspires to take you into somebody else's world.
You're human; you make mistakes. You have to put all the things in the past.
I'm a very practical, pragmatic capitalist. I was trained at Goldman Sachs. I went to Harvard Business School. I was as hard-nosed a capitalist as you get. I specialized in media, in investing in media companies, and it's a very, very tough environment.
When you get your first pay cheque, it's the best feeling in the world.
For me, being in front of a camera is a matter of practicing and refining your art. I think, if you're telling a story worth telling, it's worth investing the time into developing.
I understand that fans think short-term, and there's nothing wrong with that. You live or you die in the short term. But I believe in our system, and when you do that, you don't make knee-jerk decisions.
There's a lot of intensity when you're on a set. And then it just goes away and no one's giving you attention or flooding you with compliments.
You can change the circumstances but you can never change man's inner nature.
I think in my job, it's quite difficult to find work on television... you don't necessarily want to get a profile for something that you don't fully believe in.
When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.
I was once up for a part, and the male star was also producing the movie. They were talking about meeting with him or having an audition with him, and then we get the message, 'He wants to have dinner with you.' I said, 'Is that the audition, or is it that he just wants to have dinner with me?'
If two smart, intelligent, clever guys sit together on a table, and you both want the same, where can be the problem? We all want to be successful.
If you have the support of people with a heart and a brain, then you're good.
I think most of the time you can make something happen, and it's about not letting your imagination be limited by that.
You have to make one thing a priority and achieve balance that way, rather than trying to do everything all at once.
When a state offers your company an attractive package of incentives to relocate, you have to look at it, and if it significantly boosts your bottom line, you have to take it or answer to your investors.
If you have, especially with siblings, something like the competition for mom's affection, it just never goes away.
It definitely feels different to perform to people who know your music. Because people's feedback is not just, 'Oh my God, that was amazing. Who are you?'
I think high school's very difficult. You're figuring out your own power and your effect on other people. You look back and see how you spent so much energy on figuring out things with your parents or your peers.
You can't just give a speech and expect people to fall down and agree with you.
Ironically, when I was in Dubai with the BBC 'Good Food Show,' even though it's an urban area, when you see the vast panorama from the top of the Burj Khalifa, it feels remote, as if it's just sprung up out of the desert. I like Dubai. I didn't think I would, but the food and the people were great.
The blues is like a planet. It's an enormous topic. You can't ignore the impact that it has had and continues to have on the whole musical culture. It's a tree that everyone is swinging from. Without it, I don't know where I would be. It's indelible and indispensable.
Why can't she move in with you? Is she against that? She's not a Mormon or anything, is she?
Being in the public eye puts you in a fix, and people are always wanting to know what you are up to.
That's Quentin. He's an absolute master of his own fate. If he agrees with you, he'll change his mind instantly. If he thinks that he's right, there's no way you can get him to change his mind.
