When you feel that you can't fight it, you just go for it. When it comes to the arts, passion should always trump common sense.

If De Niro wants to spend the twilight of his career as the McDonald's of master thespians, we can't stop him.

I don’t get into these long-winded heavy discussions about character - do we do this or that or what. At the end of the day, what you gotta do is just go out there and do it.

There is only one way to gain access to the truth and that is to not expect anything.

I think Hollywood has a class system. The actors are like the inmates, but the truth is they're running the asylum.

A lot of young actors have the idea that, "I've got to do this right. There's a right way to do this." But there's no right or wrong. There's only good and bad. And "bad" usually happens when you're trying too hard to do it right. There's a very broad spectrum of things that can inhibit you. The most important thing for actors - and not just actors, but everybody - is to feel loose enough to create what you want to create, and be free to try anything. To have choices.

In the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing and to keep them coming back. The longer they play, the more they lose, and in the end, we get it all.