Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
In music, the punctuation is absolutely strict, the bars and rests are absolutely defined. But our punctuation cannot be quite strict, because we have to relate it to the audience. In other words we are continually changing the score.
Mick Jagger also a music connoisseur and knows everything about that era. So, you knew the music side was going to be top-notch. It's HBO. On Men of Certain Age, if we wanted a song, it would break the bank. But, Vinyl can go all-out.
The thought of a man being the murderer of his own daughter in the Twin Peaks was anathema to me. At the time, I had a 2-year-old daughter of my own, and that possibility really turned me off. I was praying that I wouldn't be the one.
I would be lucky to be remembered as Harry Crane. That being said, I think it's a goal for most actors to have the opportunity to play a variety of characters, so I hope any non-'Mad Men' role feels as separate as possible from Harry.
I didn't know that I could be an actor until I was 25 years old, and now I continue to go back to the prisons and probation camps and the inner city to say that you don't have to go through the violence, through the trauma like I did.
I am drawn to writing and directing as it is most like the feeling I had when I was a teenager with my puppet theatre. You are more in control of everything and involved in every aspect of production, so more challenged and fulfilled.
'Breaking Bad' - I've heard that question phrased in many directions, and it always means the same thing. It's when someone can't... when a decent person can't take it any more. They just kind of turn and go in the opposite direction.
When you make a movie, everyone should leave their own personal problems at home. When they start bringing those to set, filming can be very difficult... You don't need any extra drama. Put the drama into the story, in the characters.
I went to one of these signing conventions. It was one of the most interesting experiences I've had. It was so strange that people would pay for autographs. You keep thinking you should do a little dance for them as well or something.
I enjoyed working with Dustin Hoffman. That was really fun. He decided that to really be effective as Woodward and Bernstein, considering their differences, we should spend some time together. Because Dustin and I were very different.
Some people figure that if they're part of a gang then they have less of a chance of being killed, because they are in larger numbers. But the problem with this is that it will lead to people doing stuff that they wouldn't usually do.
In the modern media age we are rarely surprised by what we see. Whether it's on television or film or in the theatre, everything is so advertised, so trailed, that most entertainment is merely what you thought it was going to be like.
Our ego never wants to die and it will do anything to prolong its life. But the truth is, we are both spirit and ego and you have to have a balance between the two. Your spirit never dies, but the ego is all about beginnings and ends.
I suppose 'Gladiator' could be a Western - if you were writing your review in Athens, that is! To be honest, we didn't really think that way at the time. But there is common ground. And they both have horses - I liked that, obviously.
I make about two movies a year outside the 'True Blood' schedule. I work on a great show six months a year, then outside that I get to satisfy whatever creative urges I have. It's a great position, especially for a single guy like me.
I don't necessarily find superheroes in general, for me, that appealing. I'd much prefer to play, if I was to be cast in a superhero film, I'd prefer to play the villain because there's a reason, there's a motive behind their madness.
I still take losing out very seriously. But it inspires me that much more to move on. Quite often in my business, it's not the most talented people that succeed. Because they don't necessarily have the tenacity to deal with rejection.
I turned to my mom and said, 'I'm going to be a martial arts movie star.' She didn't believe me, and neither did my dad. They both thought I would grow out of it. That it was a phase. I decided then I was going to do it or die trying.
I do not believe in a simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil. I believe this is a big world full of men, women, and children who struggle to eat, to love, to work, to protect their families, their beliefs, and their dreams.
I tend to lean more towards the Westerns of the 40s and 50s as opposed to the 60s and 70s. They get a little too drab for me when you get into the Spaghetti Western era. I love the John Ford movies. I love the music. I love the scope.
There's something very funny about giving a menial task to a genius and watching him find so much complexity and overanalyse it to such a degree that the waitress from Nebraska working at the Cheesecake Factory has passed them all by.
I think in terms of a career trajectory, it's good for people to be reminded that, in spite of seeing me a million times a day on a show for ten years playing the same character, I'm an actor, and actors like to play different people.
Every time I make, I've made a piece of work, I've wanted to get rid of it, obliterate it and do the next thing, because it was never quite what I wanted. I think the moment you think you've arrived is the moment that you should stop.
There are some incredible television shows. It seems a sort of succumbed place to be. At the moment, I'm quite happy sort of flitting from place-to-place. I wouldn't want to relocate from where I am right now in terms of where I live.
I think there is some truth to publicity stunts that might get you press like that. It's so hilarious because now every time I walk by the tabloid stands and look at the tabloids it makes me kind of wonder like what's really going on.
There's a lot of thought in art. People get to talk about important things. There's a lot of sex, you know, in art. There's a lot of naked women and men, and there's intrigue, there's fakery. It's a real microcosm of the larger world.
There's a lot of talk about people being abused on Twitter, women being savagely insulted and degraded. I think, 'Why get into that in the first place?' If I jump into a garbage bin, I can't complain that I've got rubbish all over me.
Eddie Murphy was my guy for a long time. My first exposure to 'SNL' was his 'Best Of' VHS, and I would watch it over and over again. He was one of the few people on the show to play with the live elements and engage with the audience.
I've gotten over that by now. But I remember the first time reading the book, I was like, 'Wait, Jacob's been trying to get Bella this entire time, and he strikes out, so he goes for her child?' I was so confused. It took me a second.
It's not enough to have good thoughts for the world. You must get out there! It is also really important that each person realise their own worth. If you don't think you're good enough, how can you turn around and help save the world?
Game design has always been a secondary passion. I don't know how to program, though, so I'm at this strange crossroads where I'm like, 'I wonder if I can convince people who know what they're doing to hear me out on one of my ideas.'
I always try to approach things from the point of authenticity. I've done that for my short films, working with non-actors from the real environments where you go exploring and placing them into the cast alongside professional actors.
My doctor said, 'If you can weigh what you weighed in high school, you'll essentially be healthy and not have Type 2 diabetes.' Well, I'm gonna have Type 2 diabetes, because there is no way I can weigh as much as I did in high school.
I'm going to fail to hit the mark I've put up before me because it's not possible to hit it. I want to be the best at what I do so I've got to get over myself already because that's never going to happen. I ain't ever going to be God.
World War Z was a great zombie film because those were zombie performances. It wasn't just a bunch of people walking around slow. They did close-ups on zombies who were performing, as a mindless dead thing. They were creepy and scary.
Having had that experience... I think, what modern culture wants to see is the relationship with the woman. I don't think you can tell a story on film nowadays where the woman simply is there for the man when he decides to settle down
I think like a lot of people, you look back on your life and say, 'Gee, why didn't I apply myself?' If I would have spent as much time studying as I did conniving, trying to do as little as possible, I probably would have got the A's.
We want to live in the black and white, but we don't. The world is gray. And, I'm always fascinated by people who are clearly, 'This is black and this is white, and that's the way life is.' Life always has something to say about that.
L.A. is this huge epicenter of the most popular person. Can you imagine, every single high school in the world where someone says, "You're so beautiful, you could be a movie star," all of those one people move to this town called L.A.
In principle, I think the idea of rewarding a good effort is interesting, but movies are generally different from each other as are performances and the conditions on how the performances are given and how they're edited and so forth.
I signed schoolboy forms for Watford when I was 12, but then my parents got divorced, and I never kicked a ball for three years. I rebelled, I left home, but getting back into football sorted me out. It was the second chance I needed.
I hate to use this as a metaphor, but making movies is kind of like going to war. It's not - but the stamina required and what it takes to tell a story that is this big in scope, you need a general that will bring out the best in you.
But as a result of that, there was, once the show ended, there was this talk for sort of four, five months about what was going to happen, and if we were going to move to Showtime, and if we were going to be bought by ABC or whatever.
It's no laughing matter being a Republican in these perilous times. Anyone can be a Republican when the stock market is up, but when stocks are selling for no more than they're worth, I tell you, being a Republican - it's a sacrifice.
We knew all along we were making a good show, so its success was not a surprise to me. What has surprised me is the magnitude of this show's success. More people see me now in one episode than saw me in 20 years of movies and theater!
Everything I do, I try to think, 'Okay, what are the ramifications?' Like, with the clothes I wear, I prefer if it's grown organically, because cotton - which is what's used in most clothing - takes up 50 percent of all pesticide use.
You know, I've always tried to look at things as just what the part was. I never tried to worry about whether it was the lead or not the lead, because I think you can really mess your mind up when you're too caught up in those things.
I can destroy a dance floor. I think life should be a musical. I always hate it when people watch a musical and they go, 'Oh, it's so unrealistic, no one just breaks into song in the middle of their day.' Yeah, they do- if they're me.
The first job I got was this TV job in this show called 'The Unusuals.' Then I did a play called 'Slipping,' and at the same time I was rehearsing another play at Playwrights Horizons, and that kind of snowballed into a bunch of plays.
My most memorable food challenge was probably the Big Texan in Amarillo. All the big executives called me because it was such an iconic challenge, and a victory in that would be a legitimizing device for myself as much as for the show.