There are so many projects that you go into hoping the story works, and here comes a new third act and that kind of thing.

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

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

Meryl Streep's brilliant, just brilliant. I've been fortunate to do two movies with Meryl. And for an actor to go moment to moment like she does, there's no one better. And she dances between moments. Each take is different because she's riding instincts, she's riding impulses. And she trusts that.

I went to Walter Reed hospital a couple of times to visit wounded soldiers, kids with no legs and one arm. You start to question some things.

Are we just pretending to be unhappy so that we can add drama to our lives, so that we seem more substantial?

You see a lot of these movies that are really just 90-minute video games. The effects are incredible. I get it: There's an art to that, terrific. I'm not interested in it, but there's an art to that I suppose.