Art imitates life and, sometimes, life imitates art. It's a weird combination of elements.

I never think about the downs. Well, only when I get asked during interviews.

It's an eclectic film and I think we served the novel really well. And we had a great cast who worked for free. Everyone read it and said, I'm in, from Nick [Nolte] to Albert [Finney] to Omar [Epps] to Barbara [Hershey]. We really had fun and shot it in a very short time. I think the subject matter is more topical today, more to the point, than it was 30 years ago, when it concerned the Vietnam War.

My friends are always honest with me about films. But I really wanted to talk to regular people and kind of have a forum to interact with them; not just about films, but about everything.

All actors have to make the words fit in their mouths, and make the words the words fit to how you say it and how you make it life-like and make it look like what you're saying is just conversation that you're just thinking off the top of your head. That process is not quite improvisation.

I wake up laughing every day. I get a kick out of life.

Every day, I work at not taking this fame thing seriously. Fortunately, I have a great group of friends who help me do this.