"It made me think about a whole area of human activity that was not really a concern to me before that, because I was involved in reading Chinese history, or languages, or whatever."

"I don't even like to use the word relationship. I don't know what it means."

"The twentieth century has exhibited a barbarism and lack of respect for human life on a massive scale just about unknown before."

"Nothing gets a bigger laugh than when you refer to things like ethics or human rights."

"Acting is not about knowing all this stuff; it's about character."

"I kind of have a dilettantish spirit about me."

"Involvement in public affairs is a legitimate use of celebrity."

"I was immature the way I handled the business. I saw myself as a tribune of the people."

"I think it's good to meet smart people and talk."

"But some actors I have met possess an intelligence that I can only dream of. It's about character, it's about behavior. They understand things about people that I simply don't see."

"I'm a 9/11 Republican."

"I do believe all actors are smart."

"Anyone who devotes time and attention to what makes people tick, to me, is a smart person."

"But why should I run for office and lose what little influence I have?"

"It's not like I'm the most famous person in the world."

"I saw and I met a lot of people who were in the field. It also provided a context in which I came to respect what the actor did, because I saw how difficult it actually was to do."

"I've seen people with a tremendous amount of educational background in the field not turn out to be terribly good actors, and I've seen people with no education in the field turn out to be people that I admire quite a bit."

"In Europe, people in the arts are considered part of the intelligentsia; they are considered part of the elite."

"I can't talk about foreign policy like anyone who's spent their life reading and learning foreign policy. But as a citizen in a democracy, it's very important that I participate in that."

"I think you have an obligation to be an optimist. Because if you're not, nothing will change."

"I had no desire from an early age to be on the stage."

"If you don't think you want to go on a train and read the paper every day and work from nine to six at night, there was something about the uncertainty when I was younger which was very attractive."

"I kind of dwindled into acting."

"If I don't see my kids for six days, I start to get withdrawal pains."

"Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers."

"You have to think an awful lot about your motivations or people's behavioral intentions or what their body language can indicate or what's really going on or what makes people sometimes do, sometimes, the irrational things they do."

"For about the first ten years of my career, I wasn't terribly motivated."

"Too often in the past, U.S. leaders have forced Israel to pay the price for American strategic interests in the Middle East - through concessions in the peace process as well as passivity in the face of Iraqi attacks."

"I started getting jobs, and I thought it was going to be real easy."

"Then I realized that to be really good at this requires a lot of energy and concentration and skill."