I believe in ceremony. I think ceremony is important, pomp and circumstance, tradition. I'm into those things.

My first lessons in comedy, how to construct a joke, I learned from Eileen Brennan, who had unbelievable timing.

I've always found women more interesting than men.

I like the tradition of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances and how they react to events which force them to be heroic in a way that is not in their natures.

Some of the '80s movies I did are sort of museum pieces. St. Elmo's Fire is great as a sort of kitschy, "Oh, my god, I can't believe we wore that" type of movie.

[Maggie Smith] brings new meaning to the phrase "doesn't suffer fools." She has just the most amazing, dry timing of anyone ever, I think. I think everyone's always known about it, but with her resurgence on Downton Abbey, a whole new generation has been introduced to it, which is just great.

[On "John F. Kennedy" set] everybody was very interested in the accent. Even my collaborators were very curious to know if I was even going to do it. And I was, like, "You just can't not do it." I think everybody was worried that it was going to sound like the guy from... is it The Simpsons?