“We’re all conning ourselves, one way or another, just to get through life.”

You have to treat yourself like a mushroom to some degree, in order to keep on discovering things.

My dad was the biggest influence on my life because he was never boring.

It’s got to do with putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them. I like the empathy that comes from acting.

I start from scratch with each movie; I wipe the slate and I certainly don’t rely on some bag of acting tricks I’ve amassed over the years.

Art is something to be proud of. Art is no compromise. As an actor, you’re giving it up, you’re at the mercy of so many other people.

Essentially, I’m untrained, so I just go with my imagination and try to put myself as solidly as I can into the shoes of whatever person I’m going to be playing.

The art of survival is a story that never ends.

As an actor, I don’t feel like it’s necessary to watch a great deal of films. In fact, I think it can lead to imitation and unhealthy competition, which just isn’t needed.

In terms of the romantic kind of lead, I just never enjoy those movies very much. Maybe they’ll come to interest me more as I get older. I doubt it, but maybe. Romantic comedies tend to be, for me, an oxymoron.

And being as I’m somebody who loves movies like The Machinist, I also love going along to big mass entertainment movies. I get in the mood for all kinds of movies, and so I like to try each of them.

I feel like I’m pretty good but I don’t like to toot my own horn, you know. I want to let the work speak for itself and kind of move on to the next thing.

I think trying too hard to be sexy is the worst thing in the world a woman can do.

Whatever you do, do it completely. Don’t do it half-arsed. Do it more than anybody else would.

The only thing that I’m obsessed with is sleeping, and actually, it is more than an obsession, it is a pleasure.

The only thing I would unequivocally say is that I have never had any interest in romantic comedy I just couldn’t do it. I think I’d be terrible.

I find what I do for a living really funny. I mean, acting is kind of a hilarious thing for a grown man to call a job.

Now is the time to stop drifting and wake up – to assess yourself, the people around you, and the direction in which you are headed in as cold and brutal a light as possible. Without fear.

If you don’t decide where you’re going, life will decide for you.

We do not consider our principles as dogmas contained in books that are said to come from heaven. We derive our inspiration, not from heaven, or from an unseen world, but directly from life.

Your goal in life must be to always move higher and higher up the food chain, where you alone control the direction of your enterprise and depend on no one.

Therapists need to give a depressed patient support and direction.

Don’t let others dictate who you are. Decide for yourself.

There are so many young women in film school right now, and it’s just about foreign sales companies, domestic sales companies agreeing to finance films directed by and starring women.

It’s not easy to see things from the middle, rather than looking down on them from above or up at them from below, or from left to right or right to left: try it, you’ll see that everything changes.