In drama, I think, the audience is a willing participant. It's suspending a certain kind of disbelief to try to get something out of a story.

I had a huge advantage with Edward Norton because he's directed a movie before, so one thing he appreciates is how hard my job is, he's very sensitive to that. We actually ended up finishing "Leaves of Grass" a day early.

Fame is very corrosive and you have to guard very strictly against it.

Instead of telling the world what you're eating for breakfast, you can use social networking to do something that's meaningful.

It must be good to be in Germany and France, because I have completely forgotten what it is like to be proud of your government.

I do subscribe to the maxim that generally comedy is like jazz. Either you get it or you don't. You can't learn it and you can't be taught it. I don't think that if you are not a funny person, you can fake it.

I've always thought of acting as more of an exercise in empathy, which is not to be confused with sympathy. You're trying to get inside a certain emotional reality or motivational reality and try to figure out what that's about so you can represent it.