I always liked film as a teaching tool - a way of getting exposed to ideas that had never been presented to me. It just wasn't on the list of career options where I grew up.

You make yourself what you are. You have control of your own destiny.

Success is a beast. And it actually puts the emphasis on the wrong thing. You get away with more instead of looking within.

[Robert] Ford had the idea that through fame he would receive some personal validity, but he didn't. I feel that these are not the main themes, but certainly themes that are at play in this film [Assassination of Jesse James].

You must lose everything in order to gain anything.

Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction.

When you see a person, do you just concentrate on their looks? It's just a first impression. Then there's someone who doesn't catch your eye immediately, but you talk to them and they become the most beautiful thing in the world. The greatest actors aren't what you would call beautiful sex symbols.