My father's people... are from Fairfax in northern Virginia, just across the Mason-Dixon line. So it was an honour to play Lee, he was a great general.

Stripping away artifice - it's the constant standard I aim for in acting, to approximate life. People talk about being bigger than life - but there's nothing bigger than life.

Cows is one thing. But one man telling another man where he can go in this country is something else.

We either accept weaknesses in good people or we have to tear pages out of the Bible.

What people don't understand about Sarah Palin is that she is a rancher's wife. From Alberta down to Texas I've known women like that: good common sense, bright and vilified by city people.

When you shift the gear and that little needle on the tach goes into the red and reads 9,000 rpm, that's bad.

Listening to critics is like letting Muhammad Ali decide which astronaut goes to the moon.