I'm comfortable being old... being black... being Jewish.

You give up your dream, you give up.

As a director and an actor, I encourage improvisation but in character and in the moment of what it is.

In high school, I was the class comedian as opposed to the class clown. The difference is the class clown is the guy who drops his pants at the football game, the class comedian is the guy who talked him into it.

My mind is always going. I'm always thinking what I need to do, what I haven't done, what I did do, what I didn't do as well as I could - I'm relentless that way with myself.

A laugh is a weird sound, and when you get a couple thousand people making it at once, it's really strange. But when I can feel proud of myself for causing it, it's great.

Nobody is more truthful when he's acting than De Niro.