Suffrage is the pivotal right.

Whoever controls work and wages, controls morals.

And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.

In '83, not only was there no such thing as performance motion capture technology, there was no such thing as digital animation. This was the analog era.

Audience members are only concerned about the story, the concept, the bells and whistles and the noise that a popular film starts to make even before it's popular. So audiences will not be drawn to the technology; they'll be drawn to the story. And I hope it always remains that way.

I made 'Saving Private Ryan' for my father. He's the one who filled my head with war stories when I was growing up.

I'm the audience's representative on earth.

God willing, even I might scrape a nomination.

You can't get blase about something you haven't done yet.

I want to stick around with the big boys. I don't want to be in the old folks home.

In real life, I'm afraid of heights - and people who get moral convictions... Adolf Hitler in London.

There are loads of black actors.You can't say: I'm going to vote for him, he's not very good but he's black, [so] I'll vote for him. You've got to give a good performance.

I think it would be great for the Academy to recognize old age.

I spent my entire time reading books and going to the cinema, just to escape.

That to me is what my idea of film acting should be. There shouldn't be any acting. You should just be watching a real person.

Since I was 19, I've had the most fun possible every single day, even when I had a rough life. It was the army which taught me about life, and the theater which taught me how good it could be.

I don't want to be an English actor doing the greatest American accent you've ever heard. I want to be an American doing nothing.

I'm not a betting man, and even if I was, I certainly wouldn't bet on this! I would not bet on the Best Actor.

If I see any injustice done, I have a big enough mouth and the position to open up about it.

Nobody's a criminal to himself. I never play a criminal like a bad person.

We should vote for the welfare of the country, not for the welfare of the party.

In my day, the drug was alcohol and the weapon was a fist, so it was very sort of innocent and primitive. Now you've got drugs, guns, and knives, which are so lethal.

If you're a gardener you don't need a gym. [...] You're always carrying large sacks of manure all over.

If you're a leading actor you don't work with another actor. You work with a lady.