When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very, very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory - a hunt.

You can tell so much about somebody by the films they make, and it's only while I approach this do I now realize how much of the filmmaker you can see in their films.

The people of Disney are so incredibly amazing; they are so nice.

I know that I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with.

I need a break from myself as much as I imagine the audience does.

What's nice with comedy is that you know it's working if it's funny.

I've always liked women more. I was brought up by my mother and older sister. I found my way into dance class.

Maybe in my life I sort of put myself in situations that were chaotic, outside of my life.

Watching myself. Watching the people around me. There was some part of me that was there as a kid and growing up and living my life, but there was also some part of me that was watching it all happen from the nosebleeds.

In New York, you're forced to deal with life; it's there in front of you on a daily basis.

I felt like I was going crazy as a kid. I wanted to be man, get a job.

If Russell Crowe says that he's Noah, he's Noah. You never doubt it. If he says that he's the Gladiator, he's the Gladiator. He's every character that he says he is. I've never doubted anything that he's done.

I'm from Canada, and I think, like everyone growing up anywhere else in the world, you are very aware of America - it sort of looms large in its legend, and so did Detroit.

'The Nice Guys' fulfilled my 1970s fantasy.

You feel good if you've done hard work. You sleep better. You get stuck in your head if you have too much time to think.

I got a Twitter because some guy was pretending to be me.

Do you remember when Fabio got hit in the face with a pigeon on the roller coaster, and it broke his nose? Sometimes I feel like I'm the pigeon, and the Internet is Fabio's face. Actually, I don't know if I'm the pigeon, or I'm Fabio's face. Depends on the day, I guess.

Most movies, you have to try and forget you're making a movie, because there are trailers and booms and lights and marks, and it's everywhere.

Working with someone is the best way to get to know someone, especially if it's a creative endeavor.

I left Canada to come to Hollywood to make movies.

You can't geek out with a lot of people about Linda Manz.

Acting isn't that hard, really. I mean, I think that people make a big deal about it, but you just kind of try to say your lines naturally.

What a lot of people don't understand about the NC-17, which I didn't understand, is that you can't show it in major theater chains - and you can't even air spots for your film on television. It really stigmatizes the movie.

There's a lot of pressure to be the lead of a film. I have done it. It's not my favorite way to work.

I don't know specifically what scenes I'd like to see violence in - I crave violence when I'm watching a John Hughes movie.

My mother had to tailor what I watched.

I did this scene in 'Lars and the Real Girl' where I was in a room full of old ladies who were knitting, and it was an all-day scene, so they showed me how. It was one of the most relaxing days of my life.

It's not good just to have life experience of film-making and that's all. It's hard to play a real person when you've been in jets and town cars for three years.

My sister and I used to sing at weddings. We would sing 'When a Man Loves a Woman' to the bride. We'd do it right before the garter ceremony.

I did put on weight for the last half of the film, but the Ferris wheel scene was shot with a harness on me so that if I fell I wouldn't fall all the way.

When you drive, you can kind of put your identity aside in the passenger's seat because you're not being watched, and you can just be the watcher.

I'm waiting to get old - I think old guys with tattoos look good.

Actors become very professional and proficient about watching out for each other's light and not stepping on each other's lines.

I don't like to be entertaining. I don't like the feeling of being entertaining. If there was a musical or a comedy that was not just for entertainment but was rooted in something I could relate to on a real level, then I think I would do it.

I think that you can sort of have your own personal journey and you know, you can just kind of apply that to whatever characters you're playing.

I always wanted to entertain. When I was six, a scrawny, scrawny kid, I'd get in my red speedo and do muscle moves. I actually thought I was muscular. I didn't know everyone was laughing at me.

It's weird to have no control over something that you're involved in.

My first exposure to what Hollywood was like, behind the scenes, was when Joel Silver started screaming at Roger Rabbit at the beginning of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit.'

I don't even think of myself as particularly good looking, and not at all a typical kind of Hollywood leading man sort of actor.

There's good things about going to church.

I always wanted to do a comedy, but I wanted to pick the right one. But it came down to working with Steve Carell. I've wanted to work with him since I met him years ago as a kid.

I'm not very good at knowing what people want. I don't have that talent. The best I can do is make films that resonate with me and see what happens.

If I have any particular appeal to women, maybe it's because I listen more than other guys do and appreciate how they think and feel about things.

I don't like the process of meeting someone and you make a film and that's it. You think you're just getting started, and then it's over.

If I eat a huge meal and I can get the girl to rub my belly, I think that's about as romantic as I can think of.

I was highly influenced by violence.

I feel like I think like a woman because I grew up with my mother and my sister, so I've just been programmed to think like a girl.

I had a lot of romanticised ideas of what Detroit was like, but I didn't get there until I was 30, and it was very different than I had imagined it.

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I remember watching 'Boyz n the Hood,' and there is a scene where Cuba Gooding, Jr. gets pressed against a car by a police officer, and he starts crying because it's so humiliating. I remember thinking in that moment that I could totally identify with him, and I'm a little white kid from Canada.

I feel like one of the things that I watched that I felt was really helpful in some way but, more than anything, is worth mentioning was this film 'Boogie Man.' It's a documentary about Lee Atwater.