Quotes

A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution.

For me as an American, the most painful aspect of this is that I believe that that administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that's reprehensible.

I believe - though I may be wrong, because I'm no expert - that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil.

I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation.

If there is no direct threat why are we invading?

If you have this enormous talent, it's got you by the balls, it's a demon. You can't be a family man and a husband and a caring person and be that animal. Dickens wasn't that nice a guy.

In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.

Next to that kid, we all look like onions.

One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed.

We all believe what we read. I read how Tom Cruise and I were two big egos holding up shooting. I know that isn't true - but if I wasn't making a movie with him and I just picked up the paper, I'd believe it. That's interesting, isn't it?

Psychologically, Gene/myself, we did not think about making it in the terms that people think about. We fully expected to be failures for our entire life. Meaning that we would always be scrambling to get a part. We were actors. We had no pretensions. There was more dignity in being unsuccessful. Hoffman on him and Gene Hackman being stage actors in New York City prior to their success.

I got into acting so that I could meet girls. Pretty girls came later. First, I wanted to start off with someone with two legs, who'd smile at me and look soft.

I lived below the official American poverty line until I was 31.

If a lot of dogs are on the beach, the first thing they do is smell each other's ass. The information that's gotten somehow makes pacifists out of all of them. I've thought, 'If only we smelled each other's asses, there wouldn't be any war.'

You go to the cinema and you realize you're watching the third act. There is no first or second act. There is this massive film-making where you spend this incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic. You can tell how much money the film is going to make by how it does on the first weekend. The whole culture is in the craphouse. It's not just true in the movies, it's also true in the theatre.

Stardom equals freedom. It's the only equation that matters.

I grew up thinking a movie star had to be like Rock Hudson or Tab Hunter, certainly nobody in any way like me.

One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed.

God knows I've done enough crap in my life to grow a few flowers.