It's hard on an actor when you have to do a scene 45 times and you know damn well that three of the angles a director is shooting will never make it into the movie.

What actors are good at doing is walking into a situation that should make you incredibly self-conscious and frightened and doing it anyway. That's the gig, pretending that you are comfortable.

I'm a firm believer that character is highly overrated. Character is a trick that we do with the audience's collusion.

Shameless is a rough show, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s also beautiful.

The emotions will take care of themselves. You don't have to prod them along. As a matter of fact, you get in trouble when you prod them along.

I don't know if it's fair to say that it's a bad time for movies. It seems to me that throughout the entire history of filmmaking, every year there have been about two really wonderful movies, about 10 others that are pretty good, and a whole pile of garbage.

I have a tendency to say 'yes' to a script or no to a script. Not 'yes' based on a rewrite.