“You don’t have to have all this film stock, you can work faster, and you don’t need a giant crew. It’s great.”

Those are my people, you know? The ones who are going to crash and burn.

The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything.

Everybody had some sort of vision problem, some sort of damage – I had to bury myself in my napkin.

When I feel like I’m stuck, I do something – not like I’m Mother Teresa or anything, but there’s someone that’s forgotten about in your life, all the time. Someone that could use an ‘Attaboy’ or a ‘How you doin’ out there.

Now, the essence, the very spirit of Christmas is that we first make believe a thing is so, and lo, it presently turns out to be so. – Stephen Leacockof Christmas trees around the house, so it smells good.

I was at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards one year – they called me up when somebody canceled two days before the thing, and asked me to present some awards.

You want my dark side? Have I ever stolen anything? Not so much intentionally. But I don’t think it’s so much stealing as… being a part of the flow of the universe.

Be available for life to happen.

Well, the past is gone, I know that. The future isn’t here yet, whatever it’s going to be. So, all there is, is this. The present. That’s it.

The money thing is, the sort of Elvis Presley thing of buying you mother car is great, that’s very good. My mother has learned how to spend money.

No one really wants to admit they are lonely, and it is never really addressed very much between friends and family. But I have felt lonely many times in my life.

I’ve been lucky, I’ve had movies that made a lot of money, so I don’t feel like I have to kill every time out. I don’t want that pressure. I don’t need it.

So far, I’ve only sailed in the Caribbean. I’ve sailed the Virgin Island and The Grenadines. I liked all that. We charted some really crummy boats in the Grenadines. That made for an exciting sailing trip (laughs) when everything goes well.

And when I told my sons I might be in City of Ember, they said, ‘Oh! You’re gonna be the mayor?’ And I hadn’t even read the script yet.

If it starts to drag on set, or if you feel like it’s not a fun experience, people get down, the energy gets down. You’ve got to keep the energy up.

The set is stocked with Victorian extras and little children in Oliver kind of outfits, and the director says, “All right, Bud – just give it whatever you want.” And Hackett goes off on a rant. Unbelievably obscene.

I get more ass than a giant donkey stable.

I’ve always been told I have a giant placenta.

People can live without a giant state. We’ve proven that already. But a giant state cannot live without dependent people.

The starting line of the New York Marathon is kind of like a giant time bomb behind you about to go off. It is the most spectacular start in sport.

We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they.

You cannot strengthen one by weakening another; and you cannot add to the stature of a dwarf by cutting off the leg of a giant.