“When I was a boy, I would ask about my family history, about my bloodlines. We really didn’t know that much. We had a little Indian in us from the Oklahoma Trail of Tears.”

I’ve been in these tabloids for 14 years now, and at some point you just become a Zen master of it all.

I quit, and then I started again, and then I quit, and then I started again.

I always liked those moments of epiphany, when you have the next destination.

My happiest moment is the day they call wrap and I’m free. I’m not looking back.

I keep hearing I’m a crazy party guy. I’m not. I’m boring. At least by party standards.

I’m actually very snobbish about directors. I have to say no all the time. ‘No’ is the most powerful word in our business. You’ve got to protect yourself… To leave home, it’s got to be worth leaving. It’s got to be worth it.

What’s valuable to me has become clearer as I’ve got older. To me, it’s about the value of your time and your day and the value of the people you spend it with.

Each misstep leads to the next correct step.

Let us be the ones who say we do not accept that a child dies every three seconds simply because he does not have the drugs you and I have. Let us be the ones to say we are not satisfied that your place of birth determines your right for life. Let us be outraged; let us be loud; let us be bold.

We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession.

The things you own end up owning you.

It’s a lovely experience walking around a museum by yourself.

Success is a beast. And it actually puts the emphasis on the wrong thing. You get away with more instead of looking within.

Fatherhood is the best thing I ever did. It changes your perspective. You can write a book, you can make a movie, you can paint a painting, but having kids is really the most extraordinary thing I have taken on.

You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you.

I’m probably 20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic. I don’t think anyone really knows. You’ll either find out or not when you get there, until then there’s no point thinking about it.

Always be the best, my boy, the bravest, and hold your head up high above all the others. Never disgrace the generation of your fathers. They were the bravest champions.

Every girl and every boy that’s born alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.

I was everything an R&B singer wasn’t. I wasn’t in shape. I wasn’t a pretty boy.

Boys, you must strive to find your own voice, because the longer you wait to begin the less likely you are to find it at all.

I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue.

A boy and a girl, dressed in the T-shirts and denim that are the shabby uniform of this age.

From when I was a young boy, I read books on weapons and tanks and combat. I was so interested in the army.

From when I was a young boy, I read books on weapons and tanks and combat. I was so interested in the army.