The reality of things going on around me is more interesting than the fantasies of the world I work in.

[After Easy Rider] I couldn't get another movie, so I lived in Mexico City for a couple of years. I lived in Paris for a couple of years. I didn't take any photographs, and then I went to Japan and saw a Nikon used. I bought it, and I just started, like an alcoholic. I shot 300 rolls of film. That was the beginning of me starting again.

Independent films in this country are in the same position. Miramax and Fine Line are not independent - they're with Disney! Come on. Or they're with Warner Brothers. They're all with somebody.

I was very shy, and it was a lot easier for me to communicate if I had a camera between me and other people.

I was always involved in art and when I went under contract at Warner Bros. at 18, it afforded me the possibility of never having to stop painting, never having to stop taking photographs and so on, and to actually live a cultural life.

The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad.

In Method acting, you can't have preconceived ideas. You have to live in the moment. You have to keep yourself open.