I think there's quite a lot of cowardice in music. I don't mind if it goes wrong, I just want to go for it.
As a kid, I was growing up in an era of celebration of the Civil War centennial, with a lot of 'Lost Cause' emphasis on the Confederacy. I used to play Civil War soldiers with my brothers as a child, and my older brother always insisted that he got to be Lee, and I got be Grant. I never knew that Grant won until quite some time had passed.
I belong to quite a lot of learned societies. We collect firearms and discuss them at dinners and clubs and things.
We tend to think of politicians as time-servers and slackers. But on those committees they usually have an interest in the subject. And they're quite clever. I've seen them pick people apart.
It's nice because working in England I'm know for working in television and theater when you get a chance to come out, it is quite fun to be out from behind the mask. You need to let people know who you are.
Since the new film has been out, I'm doing quite a lot but then in July I will start doing things at home. I have to fix the house up, see the grandchildren and such.
I was quite ready to accept certain restrictions on the United States. After all, there was a great dollar shortage. It was quite clear that the more prosperous Europe became, the more business there would be in the United States.
Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.
Ironically, that was quite a bit of the appeal of Rumours. It's equally interesting on a musical level and as a soap opera.
I was quite pleased that Prince Philip didn't say anything like, I hate queers! He was quite well behaved.
The idea of doing a children's film is different, but quite honestly I like doing anything - any genre. I've only made one Western, which was 'Three Amigos,' but I would love to make a serious Western. I'm just wide open.
My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
In families there is always the mythology. My father died when my kids were quite young still, and yet they still tell his stories. That is how a person lives on.
I'm quite grateful to the BBC. They helped me back onto the touring circuit.
Writing a simple melody can take weeks to get it right where I want it, but I do quite enjoy it.
Don't try to write too much in a single session. One thousand words a day is quite enough. Stop after about four or five hours.
Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.
An artist attunes to what things are, which means sort of listening to the future, which is just how things are - I think time is a sort of liquid that pours out of hatpins, underground trains, salt crystals. So a work of art is also listening to itself, because what it is never quite coincides with how it appears, too.
Being on a Michael Bay set is... well, it's the only set I've ever been on. But I would imagine there's no set that's run quite like it. It's big, it's loud, it's powerful, it's intense, it's dirty, it's hot, it's sweaty - and it's really exciting. There's never a dull moment; there's never a quiet moment.
Spring has many American faces. There are cities where it will come and go in a day and counties where it hangs around and never quite gets there. Summer is drawn blinds in Louisiana, long winds in Wyoming, shade of elms and maples in New England.
I'm not angry, I'm not an angry person, but I do sometimes like playing with the perception of anger, as in pretending that I'm more angry than I actually am, and sometimes it works quite well.
After the events of the 20th century, God, quite reasonably, left Europe. But He's still here in the United States.
Some people treat seeing me as if they just won a car on 'The Price is Right.' The feet get going, and the hands start flapping, and it's really quite amazing. It's a little scary: you can't have more than two or three of them at the same time because someone might get hurt. But it's great fun.
You can tell when someone is putting on a role. If someone really believes in what they're saying, it's quite hard to find cracks.
I find it quite boring when people do things that are very considered and thought through. I like things best when they're just done because they're fun or beautiful, or simply because they are what that one person wanted to do at that one time.
I actually get quite sad when I smell bacon.
Steve Coogan does something for me. He is so naughty, but I quite fancy him.
When I was a teenager, I got into SF, quite heavily, and that too has had a major impact on my writing.
Having grown up in different countries - Jamaica, Italy, U.K. - I catch the accents quite easily. In the U.S., they don't know where I am from!
Most of the characters I'm drawn to, as an actor, are ones that are quite intensely lonely and a bit lost and are looking for some kind of redemptive answer.
A lack of government oversight hasn't hindered the Internet. Quite the opposite. A hands-off approach is largely responsible for its fantastic growth and success.
I quite often don't have breakfast, and I never have lunch. I find it helps not to wake my stomach up because if I had a good big breakfast, I would be ready for a snack at 11 and then a three-course lunch, then I'd be ready for tea, then a cocktail and then an enormous dinner.
Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend.
It's great to go on your own and discover new things just for yourself, to meet new people and all that. If you're all on your own, then there is nobody there to guide you and you have to make all the decisions for yourself. It's quite liberating in a way.
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Usually most characters I play are quite realistic.
