The thing about film is it is a very precise form. You know if you have it and you know if you don't have it. There's not really a middle bit where you're like, "I think we kind of have that scene."

I was the classic middle child in some ways, the one who could have been a priest in an alternate universe.

I like to disappear into a role. I equate the success of it with a feeling of being chemically changed.

Ive just tried to keep my eyes open, tried to read everything you can, and tried to see whether I see myself within it. If I do, then I can get excited about it.

The only way to be an actor is to find ways to work as an actor, even if that means doing a one-man show by a river.

When I first had my eyebrows waxed, I was pretty disturbed.

All roads lead home in the end. You've got to keep that in mind always - in your work and in your life.

It's a strange thing, but you get this click in your brain; the wonderful feeling that the entirety of a character is suddenly available and accessible to you.

I started working as an actor, semi-professionally, when I was 16, and got my first professional gig at 19. I guess I've kind of worked pretty consistently since then.

Ive always liked the idea of being a father. And Ive always romanticised it, because I lost my father when I was young. In a way, all of the complications that come with my career are about that.

David Mamet was great to work with. He was everything that I thought he would be as a director. He's incredibly articulate, an easy collaborator. Extraordinarily knowledgeable about film and writing.

I'm generally a happy person -with the help of antidepressants, that is- so there is something to be said for surrounding myself with happy people.

Awe is what moves us forward.

I'm shy to call myself a director still. When someone says, 'What do you do for a living?' I don't know if I've earned that.

Let there be an end ... of all this welter of pity, which is only self-pity reflected onto some obvious surface.

For us there is no ignorabimus, and in my opinion none whatever in natural science. In opposition to the foolish ignorabimus our slogan shall be: "We must know - we will know!"

I don’t understand how people can believe in God, even when I myself think of him everyday.

We are trying to prevent a third world war.

Human beings are such social animals. We're very connected with the feelings of those we're close to, so we can't really be happy when the ones we are close to are unhappy.

I realize that the majority of people in the entertainment business happen to be Democrats. I have no problem with that. And they should have no problem with the fact that I'm a Republican.