The fact that that’s the difference between Mexicans and Cubans is pronounced. It’s so immediately recognizable, the way a Cuban speaks, the way a Cuban moves the hands.

I do write about people who are complex and are striving with something and can’t quite get past their own stuff, which would be a proxy for myself because that’s what the deal is with...

It is more difficult to work on the streets and it is also very exciting to be there… I find sometimes that it makes you prepare a little harder.

I like normal stuff people fear – like spiders and heights. I’m frightened by the unknown, by things that are hard to figure out and get a grip on.

I lost interest in firearms because we had a dog that was scared to death of the sound of a rifle shot.

It did not feel like something that was going to take over my life and destroy it. It felt like a subtle flower instead of a manipulative demon. That’s the mystery of heroin.

I think I made a mistake once… yeah… it was only once.

There is no way you can get people to believe you on screen if they know who you really are through television.

I’m the last guy in the world to feel overlooked by the Academy.

It pisses me off, people are idiots, but what are you going to do? The world is full of idiots. That’s why we’ll never have flying cars. People don’t know how to drive.

To my way of thinking, an actor’s course is set even before he’s out of the cradle.

Warren Beatty has always acted like a Movie Star even when no one knew who he was.

I mean, you don’t go into a game to lose but to win and when you don’t, it’s upsetting. But if you played well, then you should be happy.

I remember fear and I remember the potential of nuclear war.

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.

Critics can be your most important friend. I don’t read criticism of my stuff only because when it’s bad, it’s rough-and when it’s good, it’s not good enough.

When the facilities of the government of the United States are drawn on an individual, it can be terrifying.

I had a teacher in art school who said something about the only works he really enjoyed seeing or found much in were works where he had a sense that a discovery was made in...

I had opportunities to be in stage productions during the school year that she wouldn’t let me do, but during the summer she gave her approval.

High energy creates more energy, more energy, more energy. It kicks off synapses, I guess. It opens up your brain and you think of one thing after another thing, after another. You can really open...

When I was on that boat, I realized the only way I would feel creatively challenged was if I totally changed everything about my environment and put myself in a storm, in a sense.

I don’t mind if somebody comes up to me and shakes my hand, but if I’m in the middle of a restaurant and somebody asks me for a picture, I can be a jerk and...

Many women long for what eludes them, and like not what is offered them.

He whom all hate all wish to see destroyed.

Art lies by its own artifice.

I bought all the stuff, but nothing was as satisfying to me as using the Rolleiflex because it was one shot.

Directing a film was something I was yearning to do. I always wanted to see if I had the capacity to be a good storyteller.

They sent me to these places to get the weight off. The diets never worked; the diets actually made it worse.

A lot of directors are overbearing and tend to make you doubt your instincts.

I feel different than I did three years ago, in The Cider House Rules.

How many times can you put together 26 different stories without running out?

Mattresses! Beautiful! Let’s go buy a couple of mattresses. Give ’em to people for their birthday.

Boy, oh, boy, people get jaded fast. I got nominated for an Emmy.

I’ve directed a film set in the ’50s.

I’ve been to Williamstown a couple of times, so if there’s room for me there this summer I’ll go. It’s like summer camp for actors.

It is one of the consolations of philosophy that the benefit of showing how to dispense with a concept does not hinge on dispensing with it.

I scored a 910 on my SAT. I didn’t care about education. I don’t know what I cared about.

I’ve been involved in something which was chaotic and insane. All I can say now is that I am, and intend to stay, a single man.

I think my longevity has a lot to do with where I come from – a blue-collar town in Ohio – and how I was raised: to work hard and respect other folks.

Tarantino’s movies, I really enjoy, certainly, and when I was 19 and 20, I was really into them.

I was in a Paris for four or five days and I couldn’t believe the reaction I got there. It was just bizarre; people recognizing me left and right.

Know your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.

Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.

I know I’m responsible for not having got the kind of roles that I’d have liked to. ‘

The word courage – God, I love that word. Words are so important to me.

As a very experienced writer once told me, ‘It’s in the rewrites’.

Until very recently men and women inhabited very separate spheres. There was always interconnection, passion, love. But men and women didn’t hang out at the end of the day and chat about what their day...

I did a play I think my first six months on the show, called Bullpen. Then I got involved with Theater Forty and did this play called Plastic which is about two male models coming...

Musicians don’t respect a lot of the stuff that is on TRL and a lot of musicians think that stuff on the radio is not good musically so when musicians say that they like us...

Your mayor, more than anyone, is the person responsible for forging the absolutely essential connection between our city and our children’s future.