“When you have kids you want to be able to go to movies and take the family too, and actually all enjoy it together. I don’t think there are that many great, live action family movies that everybody can enjoy.”

I don’t know what that weid fantasy is that makes people go, “Oh, you must have had a great childhood.”

God was showing off when he made you.

Nobody makes me bleed my own blood – nobody!

Paul is Starsky, and I met him before shooting. He was very kind and encouraged us to go with what we wanted to do. It was very sweet to see them back with the car after 25 years.

A eugoogoolizer…one who speaks at funerals…Or did you think I was too stupid to know what a eugoogooly was?

When I didn’t have a family, I was much more of a workaholic. I still like to work, but I also want to be home with them. As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?

I think the most serious genre is the thing you’re going to get the most out of. If you’re trying to satirise a comedy, it’s hard to do that – it doesn’t really work as well. But I love the war movie genre and I’m a fan of all those movies that are part of what this movie is.

I’m just not a naturally cheery person. I’m naturally moody. I know that from people who spend a lot of time with me. People who spend a lot of time with me may not wish to spend a lot more time with me.

You’re freaked out that you’re going to be having a child, and once you’re looking after your daughter, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.

You have to stay in character in between takes.

I was staying on [writer/director/actor] Eric Schaeffer’s couch in New York, and he said, “I’ve got this movie [If Lucy Fell]. Can you do five days on it?”

I’m very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.

Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.

And I was like, “Yeah, anything. Twenty-four hours times five is 120 hours. Oh, great, I’ll fill 120 hours of my life with something.” So I did that and it was fun, and then I did Flirting with Disaster.

I don’t think know if anything’s going to translate anywhere. You’re making a movie, you hope it’s going to be funny, you can’t think about how it’s going to go over.

Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don’t play their game!

It’s usually kids that normally don’t have a chance to get to meet each other because they’re separated by millions of different things.

There was an edge of, ‘Go away kid, you’re bothering me’. I’ve kicked myself a million times since. I could’ve discovered Whitney Houston.

I’m not a hero or a superstar. I’m an everyday guy. I feel happy when children approach me. I feel that something good is happening in life when little kids recognise me.

Every kid I knew had a father with a little stash of men’s magazines which the father thought was secret and which the kid knew all about.

I am who I am: an Irish Catholic kid, working class from Long Island. And I made it big.

I compare songwriting to childbirth. How many kids can you have before your uterus explodes?

I would say my greatest achievement in life right now – my greatest achievement period is – and I’m still trying to achieve it – is to be a wonderful father to my kids.

Your parents were always trying to get you to be careful when you were a kid, and that’s all pervasive in this society.