I never get bored talking about themes dealing with ambition, leadership and what it means to be an American. I love that stuff. I just love it. I've loved it ever since I was on 'The West Wing.'

I wouldn't go back on my old days, though; everybody needs to have their wild years. It's just a question of when and I'd rather have had them early than be doing it as a mid-life crisis type thing.

Can someone explain the vitriol whenever Ayn Rand comes up? 'Atlas' is the greatest motivator for the individual that I can imagine.

Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census.

I was sick of playing high-school kids. I liked being a teenager, but I would not go back for all the tea in China.

The '80s were about trying to establish myself as an actor with a career. And being a teenager enjoying the fruits of being successful with lots of what I think is appropriate for that age.

Be funny whenever possible, even if some people don't get it.

We always reminisce about how everyone tried to get Diane Lane's attention, to very little success.

Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself.

People have a responsibility, especially with today's media, to read between the lines.

Fake confidence on the outside often trumps truthful turmoil on the inside.

I invent nothing. I rediscover.

...the subject, the thing itself, is the genesis of all types of photography.

An analogy is like a thought with another thought's hat on

Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors.

Shakespeare would never have gone far in today's politically correct world.

This is the theater. And this is the best place for the imagination.

Some deeply untrusting actors - the kind that need to know exactly what's what and are completely insecure - might be quite good within the parameters of a certain sort of acting.

When building a team, I always search first for people who love to win. If I can't find any of those, I look for people who hate to lose.

I wish that every baby everywhere could land in a family that wanted that baby as much as we want ours.

I have irrational fears, and they all go back to losing my father as a kid. I've never gotten over it.