Once you've been really bad in a movie, there's a certain kind of fearlessness you develop.

I think that's what distinguishes Schmidt, really. In the movies now, so much of what is appealing to an audience is the dramatic or has to do with science fiction, and Schmidt is simply human. There's no melodrama; there's no device, It's just about a human being.

I never thought in terms of typing myself, because I wasn't that successful. After an actor has done a few pieces of work, his naïveté is the part of the craft he has to nurture most.

Even in the most sophisticated person, it is the primitive eye that watches the film.

I was invited to join the MGM cartoon department. But if I'd started work in animation I'd have had to take a cut in salary, so I didn't.

There was a period when I just wanted to make what I wanted to make and I didn't care what lie I had to tell.

Men dominate because of physicality, and thus they have mercy where women do not.