In the final analysis, you get what you pay for.
A fight scene with a crazy can be quite physical. You don't feel it while you're acting, but each day you go, that hurts.
To say that its wrong to feel this way is not the point; you do feel it. All you see is a flash of fire and, depending on your altitude, you don't even see that sometimes.
I would have dreams all the time about me playing in the NFL. Every day I woke up, I said to myself, you know, I'm going to work hard, you know, this day to get to that next level.
Pitches are like pages of a book; they're so important. The chess game; how I set you up early, and how I'll do it differently later.
I will interview bigwigs if I get the chance, but you are seldom surprised by people in power - you've got to get awfully damn close to get anything new.
Chicago is seriously my favorite city in the country. People have roots here, which is nice. When you go to Los Angeles, no one is actually from Los Angeles.
In the jungle, every day is like the other. So you need to have a special discipline to make things different and to keep in your memory the dates and the days. And I think that's something that's very important when you are held hostage.
A course never quite looks the same way twice. The combinations of weather, season, light, feelings and thoughts that you find there are ever-changing.
The joy of giving is indeed a pleasure, especially when you get rid of something you don't want.
People are often surprised that I am so upbeat. I'm always hearing, 'You're so light and funny, and your books are so dark and twisted.' There's a dichotomy. I like books that are dark and creepy. I don't control it - it's just what I gravitate toward.
What difference does it make to you what someone else becomes, or says, or does? You do not need to answer for others, only for yourself.
Americans are a lot more open, of course. There's something more declamatory in the way you express emotions. It's a stereotype but it's true. British people can appear repressed in expressing emotions. Not very good at self-evaluating, or affirming situations, touching, anything like that.
You know, I've never shot a gun in a movie.
I think people are entitled to march without a permit. When you have a few hundred thousand people on the street you have permission.
After you play a part, you think of it as your own.
When you're hot, you're hot; when you're not, you're not.
If it doesn't start with you, it dies with you.
The challenge of film is making it right there at that moment, and then you get to move on.
When I say I'm an authentic conservative, it's because when you look at who I am and where I come from, it'd be a lot easier to have grown up a Democrat.
Until we meet again, may God bless you as he has blessed me.
In my case, I played sports my whole life. I got out of college, and I didn't bother to get health care coverage because I just figured I didn't need it. But you know that if you blow out your knee on a basketball court or you get in a car accident, and you're uninsured, it can bankrupt you.
I see film roles as lovely presents that come along now and again. I feel really lucky and say thank you very much. And if they fly me to L.A., I think, 'God, I must really be doing well.' I've worked with De Niro and Brando and Pacino, and that's made me feel very lucky. But the films have never meant a lot to me.
Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.
I think great comedy comes from the oppressed. It comes from feeling like you've gotten punched up in a way.
You've got to swank in Hollywood.
Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.
For some reason in today's society, people look up to football players and you have a voice. And it's because of that voice you have the opportunity to impact people's lives.
The other aspect is that you become much more aware of the structural problems that pertain to that continent. You feel the need to act to try and solve them.
It's the subtleties of a ballad that truly make it beautiful - and it's all in the way you present it to the listener.
When we were shooting 'The Book Thief,' I was keeping all these journals. And I remember talking to my mom, really trying to verbalize all the experiences I was having. And I remember my mom saying, 'Ben, reflection is a retroactive process.' When you're going through it, that's the time to just let it wash over you.
Don't try to be somebody you're not because it doesn't work. If you try to be this perfect person or perfect persona of what you think that somebody should be when they're involved in public office, it's just not going to work. Just be yourself, stay true to your core values, and really just stay abreast of the issues.
Hair color is the easiest way to change your appearance, but a bad dye job might draw more attention to you.
If you whoop and holler all the time, the players just get used to it.
There's no place to act in Kansas. You're supressed.
By definition, an actor's life is a recipe for regret. There are always roads you could have taken. But I've lived long enough to realise that each road has its own rewards.
