“Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that.”

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

I know I’m pretty, but I ain’t as pretty as a couple of titties.

Each role you play, they set a bar of challenges that you meet. And in the past, I’ve played characters that emotionally expressed themselves a bit more in a physical way. It was a joy, actually.

I want my weekends off and I want to put my kids to bed. Those are good reasons to want to be in ‘Batman 2’.

On set I keep myself to myself; I’d rather the director speak up. I’m not gonna direct a younger actor. I think the power of example works best, actually.

The script is your map of the world, isn’t it? And if someone knows that if it’s well-written, you get all of the beats, it will tell you everything you need to know.

I’m rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room.

You always hope that the cloak of inspiration will fall, and you’ll be O.K.

I went and lived in Chicago for a year , and I studied at the police academy.

As an actor, you people-watch, you observe. And the more famous you become, the sad thing is you lose the ability to do that. Instead of people-watching, you become the focus of attention.

Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay.

I drank for about 25 years getting over the loss of my father, and I took the anger out on myself. I did a good job at beating myself up sometimes.

Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing.

I was brought up by my mother and my two sisters, although they’re older than me and fled the nest very young, so I was technically raised as an only child, but I was very much loved.

Political correctness has become a straightjacket.

People who know me , they know I have a sense of humor, I’m a bit of a joker, a bit of a clown really, and I would love someone to exploit that side of me and send me a romantic comedy.

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

Change is vital to any actor. If you keep playing lead after lead, you’re really gonna dry up. Because all those vehicles wean you away from the truths of human behaviour.

Being misunderstood is not a bad thing as an actor. I know the truth.

From a very early age, I made my decisions based on careers that I admire. The one thing that all the actresses I love have in common is that they have diversity in their careers.

Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.

God is the poet; men are but the actors. The great dramas of earth were written in heaven.

I fell in love with theater there, and after graduation I moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

People imagine that actors are being offered everything and you are not. So things come in and sometimes there are things that I want and can’t get a meeting on, or go to a different actors.