A movie set is like a petri dish for neuroses, you know? It's just, like, egos and weird personalities and, more than anything, fear.

When I moved to New York, I had to let my band know that I couldn't play anymore, and that was difficult to leave that behind.

I've been fortunate to be working mostly right out of school. Every year, there was a little something, and it kept the confidence going. It's about confidence and the belief.

I really just like characters who you don't know where they stand for a long while. It's like people. You hang out with them for 10 years, and then all of a sudden they do something, and you say, 'Who are you?' That's more interesting. In life and on-screen.

There's very few people - like Shakespeare - who, no matter what, were gonna do what they did. For the rest of us, there's a lot of events that have to happen in order for things to end up the way they are.

Cats are impossible to work with. They're just very difficult because you can't really train them. They're not really interested in whatever you want them to do. Dogs want to please you; cats only want to please themselves.

With Shakespeare, there's no subtext; you're speaking exactly what you're thinking constantly.

I'm really sick of anthems. Every song has to be a very big singalong thing - it feels very Eighties. There are a lot of 'whoah whoa whoahs,' this stadium thing. You're even getting that from some of the 'folk' groups. I can't stand it.

Max Minghella is a very close friend of mine, and I talk to him regularly.

What's funny in 'The Mayor of MacDougal Street' is how Dave Van Ronk talks a lot about the time and how exciting it was and how electric it was.

I like the idea of the comedy of resilience.

'Cool' is detached and emotionally cool. My instinct is to battle anything that seems overly cool.

Getting a record deal is a meaningless thing now.

I grow up in the States, in Miami, but I was born in Guatemala, and my father's Cuban, and in 'Body of Lies,' I played an Iraqi.

All of my high school issues are resolved!

The self-made man that some people believe is a myth? It could be, because you do it on the backs of other people.

If you can find a way that your principles are actually the strategically smartest thing to do, you've kind of figured it out.

I think it's good to be a little more fearless in saying what you feel. In not being scared of the repercussions of that.

I wanted to shred, so I learned classical guitar.

The songs I've written that are the strongest, I'm like: 'I don't know where that came from. It just kind of popped out.' You feel you can't take a whole lot of credit for it. I didn't purposefully will it into existence.

I grew up in a very devoutly Christian home.

My dad always played a lot of music, so I heard him playing all the time, and then I decided that I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I got an acoustic and started taking lessons. I wanted to be able to shred like Yngwie Malmsteen.

There's nothing scarier than unlimited choices.

Anybody who dedicates himself to exploring the human condition, there's always a detached eye that's watching. In any situation, a little part of me is observing it, to see if there are any raw materials to create something else later.