My mother lived her life through movies and books - she read everything there was to read. And she read to me every night. I never went to sleep without her reading to me. And she fantasized about the book and she would talk about it, the place, and you would think that after she read the book and after she told you stories about it, that she had actually been there. I learned about story from her, and I learned the value of a great story, and the value of great characters.

If asked my philosophy, it would be simply this: Savor life, don't press too hard, don't worry too much.

It’s been the structure of my life: you scheme and plan and try and fail and try again and accumulate and lose and win back, and then you tell.

George Clooney says that I'm "the last of your kind." That's a nice quote. I kind of like that quote. I'm a guy who shakes your hand and will never let you down. I have a code of honor and I don't lie. I have a code of honor about life and that's what he meant. And you don't need a contract with me.

I do characters. I believe in that. I think people are interesting. Now, everybody that you meet in New York City thinks that their life is a movie.

As my life went on and I met Frank Sinatra and people like that, and I watched live performers on stage, I learned how to tell a story. Because if you listen to Sinatra, all of his songs are stories; there's a beginning, middle, and end. So that's where it comes from.

Every minute doing one thing is a minute not doing something else. Every choice is another choice not made another path grown over lost.