You can't think that you're playing a villain, or you'll end up with a cartoon. You have to think about him as a person and a hero.

There's a hysterical, tired sense of humor that comes after working 14 hours a day, six days a week. I like those things because they take the pressure off the constant stress

To people outside, they think, Gee, that's great. You get to go here and there. The other side of that is our expression, This is location, not vacation

I like playing flawed characters, people who aren't perfect.

I had already done a lot of research for Rough Riders, keeping notebooks and old photographs. Some of the books were antiques for that time period, with the covers falling off.

While I was doing these plays in the beginning, I wasn't getting paid. I thought of it more as a hobby. Then I realized how seriously a lot of these people took what they were doing

I didn't know how to go about preparing for the part of someone who can't remember who he is. The frustration angle is written in, but there's also this incredible passive state

In this industry, the new owners prefer to kill anything they weren't responsible for.

I wrote a script. I actually enjoyed writing it more than acting. It's about the Irish rebellion of 1920, which is a fascinating period and place for me

I have family obligations and all that stuff. I get my kids six weeks in the summer, which is a real intense period of time. I'm with them every minute of the day

I feel more comfortable doing films with groups of guys. It's a lot easier for me. There's a difference with women: you can't take them to dinner every night and go crazy

A novel is, hopefully, the starting point of a conversation, one in which the author engages readers and asks that they see things from a different point of view than they might otherwise.

In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism.

When you're brave enough to let go of anything you don't absolutely love or need, what you have left is the space for stillness and possibility.

Christina can sing all the notes, but Britney is just hot!

It is not as easy to emigrate with steel mills as it is with the manuscript of a novel.

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.

If they're all so brilliant and I'm such an affirmative-action hire, how come they didn't catch me?

Such is professional jealousy; a scientist will never show any kindness for a theory which he did not start himself.

You don't know the power that you have with that tear in your hand