“In the old days the studios guided your career. Now it’s all up to you.”

Stop your grinnin and drop your linen

Every professional athlete owes a debt of gratitude to the fans and management, and pays an installment every time he plays. He should never miss a payment.

Slow motion is so visually cinematic; when you create that, you create it for your audience, you let them have the feeling of what it must be like to be there. And in a movie, you can’t forget the audience.

Greatness isn’t something you should always be chasing. There’s greatness within all of us, and I think that’s what we forget.

I hate tests. It’s a really lousy way to judge a person’s ability.

Through readiness and discipline, we are the masters of our fate.

We mystify the art of moviemaking, but it’s not amystical science. You take a good screenplay, put a group togetherand you hammer it out.

A good filmmaker is someone who can look at a piece and go, “This camera’s really going to be a character. I want people to feel like they’re being punched.”

The things Elvis has done during his career and the things he has contributed and created are really something very important to the music business.

I had a great tennis career. I have no regrets. But to find peace with yourself, and to finally be with your family – I’m probably the happiest guy in the world.

I always wanted to have a career that would keep me at home in New York so I can work in the theater all the time and be involved in the creative process from the ground up.

Still, it’s tough trying to combine my acting career with my college career.

A lot of people in Hollywood, and everywhere pretty much, operate on fear. No one wants to get fired, so everyone’s scared to take a chance.

Some idea of inflation comes from seeing a youngster get his first job at a salary you dreamed of as the culmination of your career.

Now, I’ve gotten to the point in my career, I’m 13 years in, to where I know that I’m funny. I know that I’m good at this.

Maybe I’m naive, but I subscribe to the idea that nobody is actually making strategic decisions about their career. Trying to do that would be like playing three-card monte on Canal Street.