As an actor, I want to give in to the collaboration with the director because I don't want my work to be all the same. The more this can be done with comfort, the more variety my work has had.

A star on a movie set is like a time bomb. That bomb has got to be defused so people can approach it without fear.

I did not want to be coming off the stage at the mercy of what somebody else told me I did.

I wasn't a babe in the woods. I'd watched a lot of stars, from James Dean to Brando, and I'd seen everybody alive work at MGM. I had a certain old-timer's quality, even though I was young and new, and drew on what I believed before I made it.

I'm Irish. I think about death all the time.

If I were an Arab-American, I would insist on being profiled. This is not the time for civil rights. There are larger issues for Americans.

A lot of people can't remember things because they weren't actually there to begin with - they don't take it all in.