I didn't play football in school, but I've been a fan of football all my life. I have a fair understanding of it. Doing movies about it really helps because you know what makes them work and what doesn't.

You have to have the ability to remake yourself. Whatever that is. Every several years... Every five to 10 years.

Surfing is like golf: You're always battling, and it keeps knocking you down. There are a lot of wipeouts. But when you stay with it and catch that wave, you really taste it. It's magic.

I owe the little formal education I got to my drama teacher, Mr. Pickett, who got us to read Shakespeare, Moliere, and other classics.

Well, there's two things I have criteria for doing a film: The script, which is the story, and the filmmaker, and it's a filmmaker's medium. I like really strong directors, and so when I do a film, I'm out there to serve the director, really, which is in turn to serve the script, to serve the director cause he's the one making the film. I relied on Todd Haynes for that.

You have to have the fire in your belly. I'm having more fun now with acting than I did when I first started out, because I'm doing it just because I really enjoy it. I'm not trying to "make it" anymore. I'm not trying to be anything, you know? The biggest this and that for anybody. I'm just enjoying it.

Sometimes in movies, I still have to be the hero, but it's not all that important to me anymore.