We've got a pretty close family. Just ended fourteen years of travel hockey with two boys. My daughter was always a part of that. So there's a lot of trips to the hockey games. As I tell idiotic, stupid, youth-sport parents, it's about the drive there and the drive back, not about the trophy or how your kid played. We've always had a good relationship with our kids. You're driving with them and talking to them at the age of eight. It became this adventure and they learned to love it. You connect, you really do. It's not for every family.

I love living in Michigan, which has been great for my kids and my family.

And the actors tend not to want to watch themselves very often. I'm one of those guys.

I never said, 'I'm going to be a big star.' I said, 'I'm going to be a good actor.' And that took the pressure off.

There is no best anything in art. Phillip [Hoffman] isn't better than Heath [Ledger]; Joaquin [Phoenix] isn't better than David [Strathairn] or Terence [Howard]. They aren't better than me. We all do different things. It's more of a celebration of a lot of great work than to give the gold to somebody. The underappreciated factor certainly has gone away.

I never starved. And you know, whatever talent I have, I've relied on that, versus image or star. I have just said, 'Hire me if you want somebody good.' I tried to be as good as I could be every time out, and that's kind of bridged the decades.

The biggest compliment I think an actor can get is I can't imagine anyone else in the role.