I make films, and I hope that people come to see them. If they don't, I pay a big price. But I can't make decisions where I would change my own standards or my own taste in order to court the public in some way.

It's always interesting to play people different from yourself, it would be boring for me to play myself.

You know, essentially when you do a play you're reinterpreting a work of art that already exists. That's not what happens with a movie.

There's a religious basis to their [Bush and Chaney] kind of conservatism. It's rooted in a kind of fundamentalism. I'm afraid of that. I don't like that idea. I think all extremism is suspect.

You can be moderate in a way and still intense in your views. It's the extremism that gets frightening; religious fundamentalism and wacko-left liberalism is crazy.

If we were a primitive society, movie stars would be gods.

You mustn't regret decisions that you make. Because the decisions are made out of your gut in a way and you have to stick with them.