I never know when somebody's going to knock on the door of my own unconscious in a way that I wouldn't have anticipated.

I mean, I think a healthy country is a country where people are healthy physically, and a smart country is a country where people are educated.

When I was a kid, my grandfather said that "if you say a word often enough, it becomes you." Thinking of that later in life gave me this idea that I could try to become America by learning the words of people from many aspects of the country.

A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.

I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators "the haute couture of language."

We who are in the arts are at the risk of being in a popularity contest rather than a profession. If that fact causes you despair . . . pick another profession. Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities . . . We have to create our own standards of discipline.

I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression.