As a boy Id often spend my days biking on riverbeds and arroyos and come home exhausted. I realize now how much I took for granted having the natural world so close at hand. It wasnt until I moved away, first to New York and then to Los Angeles, that I realized how much I missed the outdoors.

I hope my kids understand that they're not operating in a normal world. And yet there are principles they have to adhere to that are normal - like decency, choosing between right and wrong, and honesty. That's important stuff, whether you're flying first-class or not.

In your mid-30s, it’s time to start playing guys of compromise. And as you get older, men of bitter compromise.

I have gone through so many examinations of what a hero is, between the World War II stuff and the astronaut stuff.

I've talked to a number of actors who have gained weight for roles, and just the sheer physical toll it puts on one's knees and shoulders - no one wants to do it again. I'm 57 and I don't think I'm going to take on any job or go on vacation again and see to it that I can gain 30 pounds.

You don't necessarily go in to talk to the person to try to find some secret key to the lock.

I try to do what I call the three E's - educate, entertain, and enlighten. If you don't entertain, no one will show up. But you also have to educate, because people want to discover specific things about a world unlike their own - whether it's how hard it is to go to the moon or how scary it is to be on Omaha Beach.