“I’m probably 20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic. I don’t think anyone really knows. You’ll either find out or not when you get there, until then there’s no point thinking about it.”

The things you own end up owning you.

It’s a lovely experience walking around a museum by yourself.

Success is a beast. And it actually puts the emphasis on the wrong thing. You get away with more instead of looking within.

Fatherhood is the best thing I ever did. It changes your perspective. You can write a book, you can make a movie, you can paint a painting, but having kids is really the most extraordinary thing I have taken on.

When I was a boy, I would ask about my family history, about my bloodlines. We really didn’t know that much. We had a little Indian in us from the Oklahoma Trail of Tears.

You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you.

If someone wants to do drugs … as long as he or she isn’t corrupting minors or driving under the influence or endangering others, shouldn’t a person have that right?

I look and there’s our boy from Vietnam and our daughter from Ethiopia, and our girl was born in Namibia, and our son is from Cambodia, and they’re brothers and sisters, man. They’re brothers and sisters and it’s a sight for elation.

In Missouri, where I come from, we don’t talk about what we do – we just do it. If we talk about it, it’s seen as bragging.

I had a friend who worked at a hospice, and he said people in their final moments don’t discuss their successes, awards or what books they wrote or what they accomplished. They only talk about their loves and their regrets, and I think that’s very telling.

Heartthrobs are a dime a dozen.

I don’t feel restless, I just like to travel.

A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss. That’s the trade-off. But I’ll take it all.

America is not a country, it’s a business.

I don’t want to waste time being angry at someone I love.

You make yourself what you are. You have control of your own destiny.

Let me make something clear: I can’t do anything in particular to make others laugh. I do what is necessary for a character. The body language of the character may make others laugh.

I can get caught in many things but there is one thing I will never get caught in, and that is acting – because I don’t act. On screen I am like I am in real life.

The end of education is character.

You never display your character more clearly than when you speak about the character of others.

A lot of people don’t know that I love to love. To have a different kind of mask on me where people feel like I’m not a loving individual. I just love to love, I love everything and everybody, I’m about peace that’s my spirit.

If everything was going smoothly you would never build character.

I’m a very stimulated person.

To measure a leader, put a tape around his heart, not his head.