Passion is very important to me. If you stop enjoying things, you’ve got to look at it, because it can lead to all kinds of depressing scenarios.

James Dean was an actor, but he had an amazing legacy in that he became famous for never really growing up, … He’s personified, immortalized as an adolescent character in film, which is fascinating to...

And on top of that, my dad is a professor of literature so he’s very, very smart. So I was always thinking, ‘How I can aspire to be him?’ There was this intimidating aura growing...

I don’t like it when people on the street say ”smile” or ”cheer up.” It’s a real cheap line. I’m feeling good. I’m feeling real grateful for everything. It’s a solid time in my life....

It’s a big problem. I mean the whole San Francisco Bay area is in dire jeopardy.

I wish I had learned more about it in high school, but they didn’t put it in the history books, … I have great respect for the Navajo Code Talkers and their heroic acts.

Don’t lose the best thing in your life just because you are not sure.

Hollywood didn’t know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild.

Honeymoon in Las Vegas.

I try to do as many stunts as they’ll let me do. I think it’s important for an audience to feel that the actor’s really doing it.

He likes Elton John songs, he’s a Beatles maniac, he likes to play guitar. He’s not your typical FBI agent, at least not the way it’s been played in the past,

feel like real time unfolding. It’s going to smack of reality and feel as real as it can … The buildings themselves aren’t (shown) … The movie’s about what happened amongst this handful of men...

Yeah, that’s a true story,

I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion.

The Weather Man

I get stimulated by creative people, and by meeting talented people. I like putting things together, and seeing how they work.

Classes were always a bore to me. I wanted to learn things on my own, not by presentations.I was a loudmouth and a clown. It came as a surprise to me, later, that I could...

As a father, that’s what disturbs me most,

I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it.

At the time I agreed to do ‘The Weather Man,’ I was going through a divorce and I was trying to figure out how I could take a negative and turn it into a positive,

[While the scenes depicting shootouts, romances with beautiful women and close-call escapes from a relentless Interpol agent (Ethan Hawke) will keep audiences on the edge of their seats, Cage hopes the film will make people,...

The idea that kids younger than mine are fighting guerilla wars using guns sold for profit is just mind-boggling to me. And the question is, who are the people supplying those weapons? How do they...

To be a good actor you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to break the rules to strive for something new.

I always knew she was great, … but this was the first time I got to see her in the work background.

My father was always getting excited about something. It’s genetically inside me somewhere.

I think I jump around more when I’m alone.

I was always shocked when I went to the doctor’s office and they did my X-ray and didn’t find that I had eight more ribs than I should have or that my blood was the...

The Weather Man … films with more serious themes get more attention.

It’s really important that I’m able to convey the way he thinks, the way he justifies what he does to himself. The truth is, some of the dealers really are doing some good; they’re helping...

[Question 2: Does he turn to the sports page first? He doesn’t.] The word ‘sports’ has always given me anxiety, … I was the guy, when they had the lineup in school, who wasn’t picked....

I wanted to see how much I could portray, just with voice-over and just the image I present onscreen, … It’s a different kind of acting for me . . . It’s like silent-film acting...

I cry a lot. My emotions are very close to my surface. I don’t want to hold anything in so it festers and turns into pus – a pustule of emotion that explodes into a...

Lord of War

[An actor has to let things] bubble up when you’re doing a lot of the acting and telling a lot of the story with that narration, … You have to allow less to do more.

It was clear to me that he was doing Brando, … I don’t think [Dean] made any motions not to be honest about that. Brando was his idol.

It is satire, but it remains in the realm of the real, as opposed to something like ‘Dr. Strangelove,’

One of the things I would suggest to anybody who is feeling burnt in the film business, … They should spend one hour with Martin Scorsese and they’ll be rejuvenated, because this man has so...

I’m sad about this, but we shouldn’t have been married in the first place.

It’s not something you really read about or see on TV who’s subsidizing these gun sales to oppressive dictators around the world. It made me interested in doing the movie, because I thought it was...

I just liked Tom’s demeanor — I liked his energy,

It’s kind of a unique concept, but it’s totally real, isn’t it? … I mean, these paramedics put themselves in incredibly stressful situations, are killing themselves to save our lives and they’re not really regarded...

Shock is still fun. I won’t ever shut the door on it.

It’s for Weston. Weston likes animals. I do, too. I like octopuses. I can’t help it.

When I received the script for ‘The Weather Man,’ I thought, ‘Oh well, here’s a parallel.’ Sometimes I choose movies that help me do something positive with a negative emotion. And ‘The Weather Man’ was...

I really want people to know that despite the title, and despite the fact that weaponry plays a major role, this is anything but a typical action movie, … It’s a movie I hope brings...

As a teenager I was more of an anarchist, but now I want people to thrive and be harmonious.

There’s a fine line between the Method actor and the schizophrenic.

National Treasure

I wanted to make an image for myself as an outlaw type. A kind of rock ‘n’ roll sensibility.

sold guns to every army but the Salvation Army.