Knowledge is like underwear. It is useful to have it, but not necessary to show it off.
I realized the more fun I had, the more relaxed I was working, the better I worked.
It's extremely powerful to say no; it's really the most powerful thing to say.
I think all phases of one's career are serious if you take it seriously no matter if you are doing high profile dramatic pieces or not.
I bet giraffes don't even know what farts smell like.
Whenever I think of the high salaries we are paid as film actors, I think it is for the travel, the time away, and any trouble you get into through being well known. It's not for the acting, that's for sure.
One of my gripes about movies is that people take them so seriously, and the moneymaking aspects are so brutal.
This really should be kept secret, but you can learn a lot by watching the making-of DVDs. Every actor should do it. You figure out what you're dealing with.
In Japan, you have no idea what they are saying, and they can't help you either. Nothing makes any sense. They're very polite, but you feel like a joke is being played on you the entire time you're there.
The studios don't seem to foster good writing. They're not so interested in that, but they're more interested in what worked most recently. They're definitely very serious about making money, and that's not a wrong thing, but you don't have to make money the same way all the time.
People only talk about what a joyous experience it is, but there is terror: Your life, as you know it, is over. It's over the day that child is born. It's over, and something completely new starts.
Awards are meaningless to me, and I have nothing but disdain for anyone who actively campaigns to get one.
People are like music. Some speak the truth, and others are just noise.
I'm a nut, but not just a nut.
When I work, my first relationship with people is professional.
I think midlife crisis is just a point where people's careers have reached some plateau and they have to reflect on their personal relationships.
But I can only take so much TV, because there is so much advice. I find people will preach about virtually anything - your diet, how to live your life, how to improve your golf. The lot. I have always had a thing against the Mister Know-It-Alls.
The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones, the better you are with your enemies, the better you are at your job, the better you are with yourself.
All of us kids ended up 'doing Mom.' There are four of us who've tried show business. Five if you insist on counting my sister the nun, who does liturgical dance.
I go home and stay there. I wash and scrub up each day, and that's it. One month I actually grew a moustache, just so I could say that I'd done something.
I came out of the old Second City in Chicago. Chicago actors are more hard-nosed. They're tough on themselves and their fellow actors. They're self-demanding.
Sometimes I snore, like when I get really tired.
There aren't many downsides to being rich, other than paying taxes and having relatives asking for money. But being famous, that's a 24 hour job right there.
Don't think about your errors or failures; otherwise, you'll never do a thing.
People say I'm difficult and sometimes that's a badge of honour.
I've been lucky, I've had movies that made a lot of money, so I don't feel like I have to kill every time out. I don't want that pressure. I don't need it.
My favorite thing about New York is the people, because I think they're misunderstood. I don't think people realize how kind New York people are.
One of the things I like about acting is that, in a funny way, I come back to myself.
While I have felt lonely many times in my life, the oddest feeling of all was after my mother, Lucille, died. My father had already died, but I always had some attachment to our big family while she was alive. It seems strange to say now that I felt so lonely, yet I did.
Parties are only bad when a fight breaks out, when men fight over women or vice versa. Someone takes a fall, an ambulance comes, and the police arrive. If you can avoid those things, pretty much all behaviour is acceptable.
I don't want to be that guy mumbling into his drink at a bar.
And I don't like to work. I only like working when I'm working.
I went to Second City, where you learned to make the other actor look good so you looked good and National Lampoon, where you had to create everything out of nothing, and SNL, where you couldn't make any mistakes, and you learned what collaboration was.
Nothing prepared me for being this awesome. It's kind of a shock. It's kind of a shock to wake up every morning and be bathed in this purple light.
I've never made any horrible, horrible movies. If you don't ruin your reputation, you can always get work.
Do crabs think we walk sideways?
Somewhere there's a score being kept, so you have an obligation to live life as well as you can, be as engaged as you can.
Yeah, I think that's sort of the American way. And it's also the Polish way, it turns out.
Here's the thing, you just have to drive a lot faster, and if you don't get there, we're both fired.
There are people who drove me crazy, but they got the job done. And when I see that person again, I nod my head. Respect.
I feel that if you really want an Oscar, you're in trouble. It's like wanting to be married - you'll take anybody. If you want the Oscar really badly, it becomes a naked desire and ambition. It becomes very unattractive.
I throw a Christmas party at my house. It's not really a Christmas party, because I don't want to call it a Christmas party. But let's just say I put a lot of Christmas trees around the house, so it smells good.
It's hard to be an artist. It's hard to be anything. It's hard to be.
When you see grown men near to tears because they've missed hitting a little white ball into a hole from three feet, it makes you laugh.
We're born alone. We do need each other. It's lonely to really effectively live your life, and anyone you can get help from or give help to; that's part of your obligation.
Golf was my first glimpse of comedy. I was a caddy when I was a kid. I was on the golf course rather than being in lessons, but I can play better now than I could then.
There's only a couple times when fame is ever helpful. Sometimes you can get into a restaurant where the kitchen is just closing. Sometimes you can avoid a traffic violation. But the only time it really matters is in the emergency room with your kids. That's when you want to be noticed, because it's very easy to get forgotten in an ER.
I think that the online world has actually brought books back. People are reading because they're reading the damn screen. That's more reading than people used to do.
I live a little bit on the seat of my pants, I try to be alert and available for life to happen to me. We're in this life, and if you're not available, the sort of ordinary time goes past and you didn't live it. But if you're available, life gets huge. You're really living it.
