Am I now supposed to go on Oprah and cry and tell you my deepest, darkest secrets because you want to know?

As the years have gone on, I find one of the dangers of watching dailies... is you fall in love with moments.

Directing a film was something I was yearning to do. I always wanted to see if I had the capacity to be a good storyteller.

I open myself up every time I walk on screen and give you everything that I am. There are parts of me that are in every movie that I've done. That to me is what my job is.

I went through a period of great rebellion within my family, when I was about 9 or 10. I was mad, I had no focus, had no real interest in anything, and so I started to do things that were just rebellious and stupid.

I'm lucky if I find one movie a year that's worth doing, and when I do find one, it usually only takes 20-30 days to shoot.

I'm not someone who's led my life trying to get publicity; I'd rather do my work and go home.

I've been on sets where things weren't relaxed because someone was creating tension for no reason.

For me, coming to work every day has turned out to be exactly what I hoped it would be.

For kids growing up now, there's no difference watching 'Avatar' on an iPad or watching YouTube on TV or watching 'Game of Thrones' on their computer. It's all content. It's just story.

No matter how good you might be in a movie, you'll never be any better. But in a play, I can be better next Tuesday. That's the thrill of it.

I am so leading the life that I want and wanted and dreamed of as a kid. I'm trying very hard not to abuse it or take advantage of it.

No one should ever feel sorry for me. I've been treated very well for the most part.

Maybe there are people who are gamers who haven't seen movies I have made, or the movies I have made have made no impression on them at all.

My mother was sarcastic and delightful and, trust me, quite remarkable.

I mean we all played as kids. You play games, you take on different characters, you imitate; the fun and the love of play has never left me.

Secondarily, I think films that are driven by music also terrify studios.

The next day I was in my school's production of All My Sons. This was the performance where I realized something was happening between me and the audience that I hadn't recognized before.

The stigma that used to exist many years ago, that actors from film don't do television, seems to have disappeared. That camera doesn't know it's a TV camera... or even a streaming camera. It's just a camera.

I've been intrigued by politics my whole life. And, yes, I am very close to the Clintons. I was a Hillary person until I was an Obama person. And she was a Hillary person, too, until she was an Obama one, evidently.

Am I arrogant? I've been arrogant, sure; everybody's been arrogant.

Essentially, your voice is an instrument; it's a muscle, and you have to treat it like a muscle, and so you have to work it.

To look in the eyes of audiences and see the kind of naughty glee that they got with being on the inside, the audience becomes your co-conspirators.

When I was young, I learned very early on that I could make my mother laugh. And that was one of the greatest sounds I ever heard.