Remember to be as smart as you are.

I took all the philosophy courses I could.

[John Hurt] just really gifted, and I had a great time working with him and [am] very lucky to have worked with him.

It's very easy to confuse Sean Connery with James Bond. Sometimes in the entertainment industry, people believe the cake is more real than the baker.

Death is not my best subject.

It's more like the inner workings of John Bender. He feels like he's been given a short shrift, he's not been provided the opportunities that maybe these other kids have. So he feels like he begins in a hole. And instead of trying to raise himself up, he wants to bring all of them down. That's a dynamic that's pretty universal. And so that was the real foothold on that. It wasn't like, "Oh, my high school experience is like John Bender's [in St. Elmo's Fire]."

I put less stock in others' opinions than my own. No one else's opinions could derail me.