When I was younger, it was about doing something that made me nervous. Now, it's for many different reasons. I've had the opportunity to have fun. I don't know why that is, but I like it.

Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character.

Im a character actor, and I made a choice when I was young, after Mystic Pizza, not to go for the mainstream stuff, and to do a more eclectic kind of route.

It's like why people read scary books or go see scary movies. Because it creates a distance. They're scared, but they're not going to get hurt.

This haunting idea of becoming a celebrity doesn't settle well with me at all.

When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.

It's pretty simple, pretty obvious: that people's first impressions of people are really a big mistake.

If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.

To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.

The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101.

I found my niche as a character actor, and I've never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to.

Nowadays, you need a good excuse to go and to start talking to someone, as they say it... "You Found a stranger, now you are in real danger.

Talent is its own expectation, Jim: you either live up to it or it waves a hankie, receding forever.

My personal opinion is that if someone writes honestly about war, it will inherently be anti-war.

I don't feel pain. I ain't got time for that. I let other people feel pain for me.

Insanity is a legal term. Crazy is an art form.

Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock 'n' roll band.

...but somehow the madness around me and the turmoil I carried within myself acted as counterweights, and I survived in the centre.

If your body is not in shape to sing [from the diaphragm] you will push and push but keep falling back on your throat to make the sound. This will ruin your voice.

'The Producers' is a sort of a once in a lifetime kind of phenomenon, and I was grateful to be a part of it.

People do change - individuals, families, nations - and the pace of transformation need not be geological.