I'm as flighty as anybody. You put a lot out there. I've been through the process a lot. When I play a major role, it's my instinct to create a nice atmosphere. People in the major roles dominate the tone of an entire film. To my mind, it's much easier to work creatively when everyone's friendly.

If you read in front of your kids, it's very likely that they'll become readers, too

I really prize and love great painting. It's so out of date now. It's slightly come back in.

I'm a fun father, but not a good father. The hard decisions always went to my wife

I grew up in a theater family. My father was a regional theater classical repertory producer. He created Shakespeare festivals. He produced all of Shakespeare's plays, mostly in Shakespeare festivals in Ohio. One of them, the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, is still going. So I grew up not wanting to be an actor, not wanting to go into the family business.

Up there with my awards, I have a great big statue of Groucho Marx, just to put everything in perspective.

Academics tend to have wonderfully infantile senses of humor.