“When you’re reading some of the great plays, when you do what I call “taking up with a writer,” something happens.”

Take a look at Israel’s history and you would know who the terrorist is.

They cost nothing, and they can be as real as you like to make them. You own your dreams and they are priceless.

Except if something was maybe a play on television or some great television script.

You try to maintain a neutral approach to your work, and not be too hard on yourself.

You need some insecurity if you’re an actor. It keeps the pot boiling. I haven’t yet started to think about retiring.

I’d probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they’re the same thing.

It was a compromise. There was a sense that I could write my own memoirs, and Larry [Grobel] would help me down the line, or maybe not, maybe he was too close to me.

I probably write a poem every 50 years.

I’m an actor, and everything about me – the way I perceive things, the way I have seen the world – has been in relation to characters and how I would want to play something or not play it.

My early career was a real rush of movies and stardom – it was almost overwhelming.

I’m expressing something that I feel is a way to exercise my talent and help communicate a role as a human being in a movie, I will do that.

I wouldn’t be interested in [nowadays] television simply because I think it goes too fast.

Romantic love can be a lot of crap, though, let me tell you. And it can hurt you.

I want to be a great actor someday, and I’ve decided there’s no use philosophizing; the only way is to work at my craft.

I learned to wrestle, I learned defensive fighting at a young age, because when someone hit me, I would throw up and fall down.

You’ve got to think of things as an opportunity. An audition’s an opportunity to have an audience.

Americans love to read about violence.

Those books are invariably described as “important”- which in my experience, pretty much means that they’re boring. (words like meaningful and thoughtful are other good clues.)

I didn’t want to do a book just to do a book. I wanted to do a book that, if you should read it, you might take one thing from it. Until that was clear in my mind, I wasn’t going to do one.

I never really read comics. I bought them, and I would draw them.

I became a writer because I love to read, yet I never get to unless I’m reviewing a book or doing research.

The Bible was meant to be read by those in love. It’s sad when it’s not.

Our old belief system drags us back into the familiar. It is hard to overcome and we often experience small setbacks. This is the time to go back and look at your goals. Read your goal statement repeatedly and remind yourself of what you want and why.

I think the pleasure of form is that you have a companion with you besides all the poetry you have ever read.