I suppose there must be some way in which I'm compelled to show some side of myself - or of people - that's paranoid and fraught and beleaguered and downtrodden, just as Tom Cruise wants to show that he's terrifyingly upbeat and terrifyingly heroic all the time.

I don't think I gave a good enough performance to be nominated for it. I thought I gave a fine performance, but those things are supposed to be about giving an extraordinary performance.

Academia is a rarified culture, especially an Ivy League academic background.

I like playing weird, kind of shady people.

It is because my dad died suddenly that I became an actor. I thought, I'm going to make money doing this thing I enjoy.

Well, you know, when people say stuff about you, it's always really flattering. But does it mean anything to me? It's not really real to me; there's no reality to it.

I get tired of myself pretty fast. So I can't imagine other people don't get tired of me.