I don't walk around talking about my life and spouting my philosophy to people I don't know. I mean, if I get to know them, I'll talk for hours. I guess I like a lower-key scene.

I read Noam Chomsky. I like some of Gore Vidal's stuff.

I never wanted to come off as self-important.

My job is to just express something that I want to express. And if I'm ahead or behind the curve, that's for others to decide.

My point was that it's hard to make good films, but I'm not under any illusion that you do all the time.

I was never into the popular school or clique or anything. Then I started doing movies when I was in high school, so then I got popular. Then the girls paid attention to you who didn't before.

Usually I do everything reverse. I practice something in movies and then I try it in real life.

Well, any time you do anything good, it's man versus himself, right? That's the art, the challenge.

I try not to dwell on the past. I'm not a big go-back-and-try-to-relive-your-past kinda person.

I just love the process of working with other actors.

I think the more you expose yourself as a celebrity, the less interesting you are to watch in your work, because if you're putting yourself out there all the time, you're not holding anything back.

New York's like a boxing match. In Hollywood, it's like a Fellini movie or something.

Usually I play people who just keep babbling on and on and on.

The British keep employing me, and that makes me like them. It also makes me think they're very intelligent.

I was never interested in being an overly public person.

I have a bit of a rebellious nature.

Good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess.

Art is spiritual.

You just try to get the best jobs that you can get. Sometimes I produce my own movies, so that's your own sort of vision. That helps things. I don't know what it is. Probably just circumstance. I've definitely been aware of the fact that I want to do different things.

When applied to politics and taken to its extreme, kitsch is the mask of death. Fascism was all aesthetics. There was no core principle to it. There was no truth to it.

No, actors go out with actresses as a form of self-flagellation.

I guess maybe I'm idealistic.

I just love the process of working with other actors. It's like jamming with a musician, except it takes a little more effort to get to that place as an actor, because you have the cameras and lights and everything. But I love jamming with these people.

Every role you do is kind of a side of yourself. That's why they give you the part.