When you're playing someone who has a strong ego about themselves, you can't play them when you have the opposite opinion of the one they have of themselves.

Unfortunately, overall, movies are a conglomerate. People buy and sell people in this business, which can get really ugly.

I love to rescue animals.... The pounds were so crowded they were putting animals down almost immediately. Seven thousand dogs were put to sleep.

I wanted to go to Jupiter. That was my plan from day one, and David Lynch gave me the ticket.

The really courageous and bold thing is to make movies about human behaviour

If my career were a hairstyle, it would be helmet-head.

Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you've never felt comfortable with, or never knew about

We like our archetypes and heroes to be what they are at face value. And life doesn't work out like that

What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you?

You don't have to run away from life your whole life. You can really live. You can change. And you can be an agent of change.

There is so much in the world to care about.

The best... measure of innovation is change in human behavior.

To make a face from marble means to remove from the slab everything that is not the face

You can't function in society if you don't involve yourself in the fictions society accepts about time. But you do so with the understanding that you're playing a game.

I only train, I don't know what a break is.

Germany is dictating its policy in Europe

There are men who never err, because they never propose anything rational.

I am basically very private, and I'm really nervous about doing publicity.

Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Most good media come out of somebody saying, 'This should exist; this is something I want to read.

The wasting of finite resources is everyones business