“I don’t talk about my beliefs too much in public probably because I feel very strongly that it’s something personal – more than personal, it’s private.”

As an artist, as an actor, as a writer, you have to use what’s personal to you. You have to be personal about your work; otherwise, it doesn’t ring true.

It tends to break out at unexpected times like a rare virus and mostly people with compassion and understanding are susceptible to it.

I’m an angry person, angrier than most people would imagine, I get flashes of anger.

Be brave enough to live creatively.

Everyone opens up to one another right away. That’s a terrific thing. I love that about actors. They know how personal this job is.

The best things said come last. People will talk for hours saying nothing much and then linger at the door with words that come with a rush from the heart.

For humans, flying isn’t magic, it’s physics.

We’re highly social animals – I’m told by scientists that what makes us different from other animals is an acute social awareness, which is what has made us so successful.

What works for me is working out when it’s useful to use that anger.

They’re supposed to be gigantic explosions and they’re just these insignificant little dots. If you step back from things far enough you realize how important and powerful you are.

Insanity is just a state of mind.

I used to be a Catholic. I left because I object to conversion by concussion. If you don’t agree with what they teach, you get clobbered over the head until you do. All that does is change the shape of the head.

I’ll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I’ll even ‘hari-kari’ if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!

What I always wanted to get seen as was as a good actor, when it was the acting I was doing.

What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.

When I’m willing to let them change me, something happens between us that’s more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues.

One reason I can be more tolerant than most is that as a therapist.

More Mexicans are leaving through deportation and voluntary return than are entering the United States legally and illegally.

Illuminated by only the most feeble red light, for light is diminished to almost nothing at the center of time, its vibrations slowed to echoes in vast canyons, its intensity reduced to the faint glow of fireflies.

I was more inclined to think of it as “writer’s impatience”, and to follow Arthur Koestler’s dictum: “Soak; and wait.

It’s incredible considering the public perception that he was tight fisted and he was more than prudent.

Since then they have occurred more often, and 2008 was the most damaging of them all to date.

You don’t wake up one day and discover you’re a lawyer any more than you wake up as a pro football player. It takes time.

I think it’s more about trying to just focus exclusively on writing music and making that a viable, sustainable lifestyle.