I pray to God every day that he makes me the biggest superstar, but before that, I ask God to make me a good actor. Being a star is hard, but being an actor is even harder. I want to be both before I am done.
Nadine Gordimer came over just before she died. She didn't want to talk about books or the arts, but about the abuse of the constitution by the government.
We didn't go for music that sounded like blues, or jazz, or rock, or Led Zeppelin, or Rolling Stones. We didn't want to be like any of the other bands.
So why are we having to fight in 2012 against politicians who want to end access to birth control? It's like we woke up in a bad episode of 'Mad Men.'
I want to be in New York. It's the place to be.
I can't think of anything I want and need that I don't already have but at the same time, I'm not sated.
Despite the fact that in America we incarcerate more juveniles for life terms than in any other country in the world, the truth is that the vast majority of youth offenders will one day be released. The question is simple and stark. Do we want to help them change or do we want to help them become even more violent and dangerous?
I put a lot of time and energy and thought behind what I do and the characters that I create, and I don't want to do anything peripheral that is going to make an audience see me up there on the screen rather than who I'm playing.
We are thinking ahead to long-term care, aware that many folks don't plan ahead and won't be ready. We want to see to it that people will have choices.
I enjoy being a character actor; I enjoy being different in everything. I want a private life; I want to be able to go to 7-11 and not get into a fight with a guy because he saw me in a movie, or not have people hitting on me simply because they saw me in a movie.
For the most part, the American film market has become very corporatised, even independent film to a degree, and because of the corporate management mentality, they want to take the safe way.
I don't want to be an action star, an action star's life is so short. I want my life to get longer, I want my career to get longer.
I hope all of you are going to fill out your census form when it comes in the mail next month. If you don't return the form the area you live in might get less government money and you wouldn't want that to happen, would you.
The less I have, the freer I am to do whatever I want to do.
I have a lot of stuff I want to talk about and offer up. It would be odd not to have ideas about something.
I'll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do.
For generations, Americans who aren't rich have been generous and admiring of their wealthy compatriots - want a country where people who work hard can succeed, where the same rules apply to everyone. They expect to have their own shot at getting rich. But increasingly, they are seeing that the game is rigged.
Everything in the world we want to do or get done, we must do with and through people.
I'm a private guy, and you don't want to be out there preaching to people. But faith leads you in the decisions you make. You don't always pick the right path, but it's there in your conscience.
If you want to be in the automotive business, you go to Detroit, and you figure it out. If you want to be in entertainment, go to where it's at. Go to Hollywood, go to New York.
I just want to make great music. There's not a genre that I would categorize it as, but I want it to be true and authentic.
To break R&B into subcategories does a disservice to the music. I like to live in a zone where I can do whatever I want, where I don't have to worry about genre.
We all get given these bodies, and they're all fascinating and different... I wouldn't want to be without the wrinkles.
It always makes me sad when someone comments on how much they love my work- from 15 years ago! I don't want to be just another old school guy that fell off.
The greatest success is creating whatever you want without conditions. I don't do commissions unless I really want to, because it's like having a job.
If you really want to kill morale, have layoffs every two months for the next two years.
The mistake people that want to be actors make is to move to New York or L.A. right away. But it's like... go act somewhere first. Be an actor. A story is a story, and an audience is an audience, no matter where you're doing it.
There was a time - before I made movies - when I was more forgiving, but now that I've learned as much as I have, I want to do movies that I want to see, that have their own unique flavor.
But, George and Steven asked me to write the Indiana Jones sequels, and I didn't want to.
So obviously, any religion embodies some form of rules and expectations for behavior, and even sometimes consequences, and they don't want to hear any of that.
I hope I'm in a position to make stuff that I really want to make as opposed to stuff that I just have to make for money reasons, or to sustain a certain marquee value.
When a defender comes up to tackle me, I want him to feel that ground.
I don't want to lose what I've won.
I don't want to make the same mistakes of being swept along with things, taking on jobs that I'm not passionate about, that I don't really believe in but that everyone says I should do.
But, I don't want to assume that our tradition of excellence is a guarantee of future excellence.
I have two little children. I didn't want to be missing their childhood while I was away, busy writing about children.
