Nothing seems to matter but ourselves. That's not how I was brought up. I don't recognize the country I live in anymore.
Are we just pretending to be unhappy so that we can add drama to our lives, so that we seem more substantial?
The biggest compliment I think an actor can get is I can't imagine anyone else in the role.
I think the American electorate should work a little harder at getting informed. That includes hearing, truly listening, to what the other side is saying. Whether you're left or right.
I think Michigan keeps you sane and on an even keel through the ups and downs. In Michigan, I do fireworks, shovel snow and live life.
We're all capable of anything as human beings. Any emotion, any action. We really are.
I think we have the attention span of a gnat. You know, with cell phones and Twitter.
You can't rewrite nothing, but you can rewrite 90 pages of sh*t. Now you've got your sh*t on the page, you can go work.
Working with Jim Carrey is an absolute gas. I have never laughed so hard for so long. Had he been on-board for the sequel of Dumb & Dumber, I would've jumped on, with no hesitation.
There is no best anything in art.
Give me good writing, and I'll play it all day.
Stars don't want to have flaws. Stars like to be likable.
I never said, 'I'm going to be a big star.' I said, 'I'm going to be a good actor.' And that took the pressure off.
You know, its really strange now with the Internet, with everyone having an unsolicited, anonymous opinion.
I would love to [do theater], but there are go-to girls for theater. I am learning that, upon moving to New York and inquiring. There are go-to girls that will get the role any day of the week. It's true. Some people won't even let me audition.
I learned a long time ago that the show you're going to see isn't the one you have in your head. As soon as you understand that, you're going to enjoy it a lot more.
Comedy is hard to do. All the cliches about it are true.
On indies it's hard to do, but in rehearsals, you make mistakes in rehearsal. It's really hard rehearsing a play or what rehearsal you get on any movie. That's where you get to make your mistakes, and you make big ones. So when you shoot [the movie] or you finally get the play in shape and do it, the mistakes are out of the way. If you're not afraid to make mistakes, then there is no writer's block or actor's block.
I never starved. And you know, whatever talent I have, I've relied on that, versus image or star. I have just said, 'Hire me if you want somebody good.' I tried to be as good as I could be every time out, and that's kind of bridged the decades.
Television in the last few years has been where all the great writers are going. TV now is what indie film used to be.
There is no best anything in art. Phillip [Hoffman] isn't better than Heath [Ledger]; Joaquin [Phoenix] isn't better than David [Strathairn] or Terence [Howard]. They aren't better than me. We all do different things. It's more of a celebration of a lot of great work than to give the gold to somebody. The underappreciated factor certainly has gone away.
You see a lot of these movies that are really just 90-minute video games. The effects are incredible. I get it: There's an art to that, terrific. I'm not interested in it, but there's an art to that I suppose.
I went to Walter Reed hospital a couple of times to visit wounded soldiers, kids with no legs and one arm. You start to question some things.
Everything’s a story, kid. Stories are what help us make sense of the world.
There are so many projects that you go into hoping the story works, and here comes a new third act and that kind of thing.
