Everything’s a story, kid. Stories are what help us make sense of the world.

Every actor just wants good writing.

I never starved. And you know, whatever talent I have, I've relied on that, versus image or star.

Nothing seems to matter but ourselves. That's not how I was brought up. I don't recognize the country I live in anymore.

Everything’s a story, kid. Stories are what help us make sense of the world.

On indies it's hard to do, but in rehearsals, you make mistakes in rehearsal. It's really hard rehearsing a play or what rehearsal you get on any movie. That's where you get to make your mistakes, and you make big ones. So when you shoot [the movie] or you finally get the play in shape and do it, the mistakes are out of the way. If you're not afraid to make mistakes, then there is no writer's block or actor's block.

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.