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I Learned That As A Director, You're Around All These Talented People, So You Have This Window That All These Really Good Ideas Can Come In To Help Your Movie, So You're Crazy To Close Them. You Need To Be Inspiring People, Engaging People. There Are Lots Of People Who Are Really Good At Their Jobs But Might Not Know Or Feel Like They Want To Come Up To People And Get Them To Participate And Want To Do Their Best.

-Ben Affleck

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I Learned That As

Ben Affleck

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I Learned That As A Director, You're Around All These Talented People, So You Have This Window That All These Really Good Ideas Can Come In To Help Your Movie, So You're Crazy To Close Them. You Need To Be Inspiring People, Engaging People. There Are Lots Of People Who Are Really Good At Their Jobs But Might Not Know Or Feel Like They Want To Come Up To People And Get Them To Participate And Want To Do Their Best.

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I'm Always Described As 'cocksure' Or 'with A Swagger,' And That Bears No Resemblance To Who I Feel Like Inside. I Feel Plagued By Insecurity.

I Do The Same Thing For Myself (as An Actor) That I Do For Others.

I've Got To Work Really Hard And I Know Exactly What I've Achieved Because I Know How Hard I've Worked, And I Make Sure To Work As Hard As I Absolutely Possibly Can, Because I Know That's The Only Shot I Have At Being Successful.

All I Do, Really, Is Go To Work And Try To Be Professional, Be On Time And Be Prepared.

I'm Sure I Can Make A Movie That Doesn't Feel Like A Seventies Movie! But The Truth Is, That's My Favorite Era In American Filmmaking. To Me, Those Were The Great Years.

I've Never Held Myself Up Particularly High When I Had Movies That Worked, And I Never Held Myself All That Low When I Had Failures.

I'm Human, Just Like Anybody Else.

You're Basically The Sum Of All The Experiences You've Ever Had, And They're Sort Of Shaken Up In You And Reproduced In The Things You Create, And That Includes Seeing Movies.

I Hate The Whole Reluctant Sex-symbol Thing. It's Such Bull. You See These Dudes Greased Up, In Their Underwear, Talking About How They Don't Want To Be A Sex Symbol.

One Guy Told Me I Was A Great Actor, I Just Would Never Be On The Cover Of A Magazine.

I Like To Think That If I Were Gay I Would Be Out. Rupert Everett-style.

On The Day He Had Colonic Irrigation: 'i Feel I Lost My Virginity That Day In So Many Ways.'

I Don't Think The Government Should Be Involved In Any Way In People's Bedrooms Or Lives. With So Much Hatred And Unpleasantness In The World, Why Would You Want To Get In The Way Of People Who Love Each Other Marrying Each Other?

You Get Old, You Slow Down.

I've Seen High And Lows. When Things Go Well That Doesn't Make Me Feel Like Some Genius. Nor Will I Allow The Next Disappointment To Make Me Feel Like A Complete Failure.

A Lot Of My Shows In The Past Have Been More Theatrical Than Others, But You Really Get The Bug For It When You Direct On Stage.

I Get To The Point Where I Feel Relaxed, And Then I Just Shoot A Ton Of Material And Make A Lot Of Different Choices.

There's A Lot Of Noise In The World, And The Internet Magnifies That Energy.

If I Could Be Somebody, It'd Definitely Be Brad Pitt. I Love The Way He Looks.

I Love Being A Father, It's Wonderful. It's Changed My Life. All The Clichés Are True.

The Thing About Online Gambling Is That It's Never Away, It's Always Accessible. And So, If You Have An Issue With Gambling, It's Designed To Take Advantage Of That.

I Like Acting For Myself As A Director. I Act And I Know That I'll Have A Chance To Have Some Say In What Gets Used And That I'll Be Able To Give Myself Enough Takes And Be On The Same Page As Myself About How The Scene Should Play.

I Feel Like Casting Is The Most Important Aspect Of Making Movies.

I Want To Thank My Wife Who I Don't Normally Usually Associate With Iran. I Want To Thank You For Working On Our Marriage For 10 Christmases. It's Good. It Is Work, But It's The Best Kind Of Work, And There's No One I'd Rather Work With!

I Remember Back When I Was A Kid There Was A Comic Strip Called Plastic Man. His Body Was Elastic And He Could Make His Extremities As Long As He Wanted. As A Youngster I Didn't Fully Appreciate. But I'm Now Thinking Plastic Man Was Probably Pretty Popular With The Ladies.

I Never Know What My Next Move Will Be In Hollywood. It's Such An Unpredictable Town. People Get Jaded And Lost And I've Been Able To Stay A Float. I Think The Next Logical Step In My Career Would Be To Start My Own Filmmaking Empire Like (harvey Weinstein) And (bob Weinstein) Did So Many Years Ago. I Think If Only The Unions Weren't So Strict In Boston, I'd Set Up Shop There And Make Films Of A Certain Quality You Don't See Represented These Days. I'm Full Of Ideas And Dreams.

My Mother Gets All Mad At Me If I Stay In A Hotel. I'm 31-years-old, And I Don't Want To Sleep On A Sleeping Bag Down In The Basement. It's Humiliating.

It's Much Nicer To Be Praised Than To Be Damned. But You Have To Have A Certain Sense Of Your Own Priorities And Ideas About What Works And What Doesn't Because Otherwise, If You're Just Looking For Eternal Validation All The Time, You Can Be Motivated By The Wrong Things And I Don't Think It's As Personally Satisfying In Your Own Work.

When You Hire Great Actors, You're Lucky, So You Just Try To Create An Atmosphere Where They Can Succeed And Relax And Take Risks. You're Happy That You Get To Watch Them At The Monitor And That Your Name Is On The Director's Chair.

I've Finally Learnt How To Say, 'no Comment'. To Appear In The Tabloids Is A Real Learning Curve And A Steep One At That. You Had Better Learn Quick Or You Get Burnt.

I Really Think That Everybody Would Like To Be An Actor. Why Wouldn't They? It's Great Work If You Can Get It. The One Thing That Prevents Most People From Saying, 'i'm Just Gonna Go To Hollywood!' Is That It Seems Unrealistic.

Rumors About Me? Calista Flockhart, Pam Anderson, And Matt Damon. That's Who I'm Dating.

Yes, I'm Going To Be The President Of The United States. You Know Why? You Think You Can Get Chicks By Being In The Movies? You Can Really Get Chicks By Being The President.

I Like That Best As I Am So Hairy.

It Doesn't Matter How You Get Knocked Down In Life, Because That's Going To Happen. All That Matters Is That You Gotta Get Up.

Everyone Has A Different Approach, But I Like To Shoot A Lot Of Film Anyway.

I Dyed My Hair For Photo Tests... I Kept It Because When Am I Ever Going To Be Blond Again?

(as) A Director Who Is A Writer, I Have Respect For Writers, So I'm Less Likely To Step On An Idea Or A Line.

[directing First Film:] I Was Terrified, It Was Really Very Scary Because There Is A Lot Of Responsibility. I Think I Was Terrified Because I Wanted It To Work So Much. A Lot Of Actors Direct Movies But I Thought The Stakes Were Kind Of Higher For Me Because I Really, Really Cared. [...] I Just Worked As Hard As I Possibly Could On Every Single Thing, Every Single Day. I Said That If This Failed It Would Not Be Because I Didn't Work As Hard As I Possibly Could...every Day.

It Takes Time To Develop A Sense Of Humor, Shared World Views.

I'm Not Known For Having Great Relationships With Ex-girlfriends, But I've Been Able To Continue One With (gwyneth Paltrow) That's Really Valuable.

Great Relationship

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If You Want To Be Able To Use The Powers Of Flash And Wonder Woman And Cyborg, You Have To Have Bad Guys Who Are Up To Snuff And Give Them What They Can Really Kind Of Get Their Cars Out On The Track And Open Up The Accelerator A Little Bit.

Clearly, There's A Real Onus On You To Do Something Correctly When Everybody, At Least In The United States, Had A Really Clear, Specific Idea Of What This Guy Looked Like - And Even More So, What He Looked Like As Clark Kent And As Superman. You Have This Whole Vast Audience Of People Who Would Be Acutely Aware Of Any Deviation Whatsoever And Probably Holding You To A Slightly Higher Standard As A Result.

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Such A Senseless And Tragic Day. My Family And I Send Our Love To Our Beloved And Resilient Boston.

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I Have A Promptness Problem. I Am A Promptness-free Zone.

I Think When You Have Children, It Just Changes Your Worldview.

One Of The Things It Channelled In Me Was That Experience That I'd Had Of Wearing A Big Red Leather Thing On My Upper Torso In Daredevil With A Mask I Couldn't See Through And An Outfit That Completely Inhibited Movement, Feeling Humiliated And Like A Fool. I Just Recalled That.

You Have To Be Kind To People. Treat Them Decently. There's No Excuse For Not.

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If I Ever Woke Up With A Dead Hooker In My Hotel Room, Matt Would Be The First Person I'd Call.

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I Feel Like Fame Is Wasted On Me.

Everyone's Entitled To Express Their Political Beliefs. I Don't Presume To Tell Anybody Who To Vote For. I Am Comfortable Telling People What My Opinions Are.

You Wasted $150,000 On An Education You Could Have Got For A Buck Fifty In Late Charges At The Public Library.

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There's Something Really Great And Romantic About Being Poor And Sleeping On Couches.

People Decided That I Was The Frat Guy, Even Though I've Never Been Inside A Fraternity, Or The Guy Who Beat Them Up At School, Even Though That Wasn't Me At All.

It Was A Dreamlike Time For Me From December 1997 To March Of '98. Before That, I Was Basically Unknown. Then, Bang! The Starting Gun Fired, And Everybody Just Started Running. It Was Learn-on-the-job. And There Were More Opportunities For Work Than I Had Time To Do Them.

There Is Nothing Worse That A Thirteen-year-old Boy. You're Embarrassed By Your Parents, And You're Trying To Find Your Independance Because, Deep Inside, You Are So Dependent On Your Mom.

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But On Balance, A Performer Wants To Feel That There's Something There Which Stands Out Because You Put A Lot Of Effort Into It, A Lot Of Energy And A Lot Of Yourself Into Something. I Feel Pretty Successful About Some Movies I've Been In That Have Not Been Greeted With A Lot Of Enthusiasm And I Do Trust My Own Criteria.

I Have A Good Instinct For What's Real And What's Not. I Don't Have To Second-guess Myself.

I Like The Incongruity Of How In Iran, These People We Think Of As Being Revolutionaries Or Fanatics Or Whatever Are Just As Aware Of Luke Skywalker And Darth Vader As Our People Are Back Home.

Its Not Who You Love. Its How.

After 2000 Or So, I Started To Realize I Wanted To Be Doing Something Else. I Didn't Want To Be In Front Of A Camera. I Was Frustrated. I Didn't Think I Would Stop Acting, But I Didn't Want To Be Seen.

But When I Felt Like I Had Something To Prove? Then I Got Up Early Every Morning And Worked All Day Long. I Didn't Know If I Had Any More Talent Than Anyone Else Directing, But I Knew I Could Work Hard At It, And So I Did.

The Trap For An Actor Is That You Become Too Successful At What You're Trying To Do, And You Can Find Yourself Stuck There.

Finding Yourself

My Mother Went To Radcliffe, And Rather Than Just Trying To Get Rich, She Wanted To Be A Teacher And Taught For Over 30 Years In The Public Schools. She's Definitely Got Some War Stories.

I Thought I Could Rely On The Plot In The Novel And Fill In The Colour Between The Lines, But I Made A Mistake With That Assumption. It Was Really, Really Hard Because You Pull A Few Things Apart And Then You Realise How Everything Relies On Everything Else And It Can All Fall Apart.

Sometimes I Get Insecure About Being A Real Director Because I Look At The Great Directors, And They Have Such Command. But Maybe That Keeps Me Critical Of Myself. Maybe It Keeps Me Moving Forward.

I Never Really Thought Of Myself As A Beefcake Kind Of Guy.

People Think You Have This Exciting And Romantic Life, Because You Project This Exciting, Romantic Life On Screen. But In Reality You're Just Doing The Same Thing As Everyone Else - You Know, Sitting Around Watching Tv With Your Gut Hanging Out, Playing With Your Kid, Or Even Sitting On The Toilet. You Know What's Weird? Even I'm Not That Interested In My Personal Life Any More.

When You Are In Your 20s And You're Not Married With Kids, You're Having Fun. But When You're In Your 30s And You're Not Married And Don't Have Kids, You Begin To Develop A Peter Pan Complex. As You Grow Older, You Have More Responsibilities And You Have To Step Up To Them.

If You Think Hollywood Is Depressing And Corrupt, Politics Is Really Depressing And Corrupt -- And Fueled Even More Than Hollywood By Money -- If That's Possible.

How About The More Than 1 Billion Muslim People In The U.s, Who Aren't Fanatical, Who Don't Punch Women, Who Just Want To Go To School, Have Some Sandwiches, And Pray Five Times A Day?

Just Because A Lot Of People Know Something Nominal Doesn't Make It Important. A Lot Of People Know What A Pencil Sharpener Is, But That Doesn't Make It The Most Important Invention Of The 20th Century.

I Like To Shoot Until We Have A Relaxed Environment On The Set, And I Try To Schedule That.

The Value Of Work, And Of Always Learning Something New, And What It Takes To Achieve Excellence. I Really Believe In Those Things That You Have To Dedicate Yourself And Spend Time, That Excellence Is Elusive. It's A Little Maddening, To Try To Have That Level Of Discipline In Your Life, And I Don't Succeed All The Time. But I Do Try.

Learning Something New

Matt And I Have Set A Date. Matt And I Will Tie The Knot New Years Day In The Town Of Swampscott, Massachusetts. Reserve Your Hotel Rooms Now. I Will Be Having A Gay Marriage.

I'm Not The Most Loathsome Man In The World. I've Dropped To Number Nine.

I Feel Things More Deeply... Anything To Do With Kids. It Just Makes A Big Difference In My Life... Having A Child Is Like Taking The Deepest Core Vulnerable Aspect Of Myself, Reaching In And Taking It Outside Of My Body.

I Don't Want To Jump Off The Roof Or Jump For Joy Depending On My Movie Reviews, Or Whether It Makes Money. I Think The Larger, More Meaningful Things Are Family And The People You Love.

A Sale Is Made On Every Call You Make. Either You Sell The Client Some Stock Or He Sells You A Reason He Can't. Either Way A Sale Is Made, The Only Question Is: Who Is Gonna Close?

No Matter How Much You Change, You Still Got To Pay The Price For The Things You’ve Done.

I'm In The Worst Place You Can Be. I Sell Magazines And Not Movie Tickets.

I Simply Asked If I Could Have A Go At Adapting A Screenplay. But I Did Not Want Any Money, In Case I Failed Because I Did Not Want A Script Out There With My Name On It That Might Be Completely Dysfunctional.

I Feel Better About My Life Every Day. My Kids Get Older. My Life Is Very Rich And Full Of Wonderful Things. I've Been Very Lucky, Careerwise.

Studios Are Used To Have An Investment In You, An Actual, Literal Investment In An Actor. You Paid Them Some Money, You Had A Contract With Them And You Were Almost Like A Commodity.

Also, Getting The Chance To Play A Supporting Part Meant That I Didn't Have To Do As Much As The Protagonist, Such As Running Around Telling The Story. [as The Protagonist] You Push The Story Whereas, Paradoxically, As A Character Part, You Have A Chance To Explore Some Of The Nuance And Some Of The More Complicated Aspects Of A Character.

My Professional Success Is Really Important To Me, And My Career Is Really Important To Me. It's The Most Important Thing To Me Outside Of My Family. I Take It Very Seriously And Work Really, Really Hard At It. Family Comes First, But This Is Something That's Really Important To Me Too.

I'm Terrible In The Kitchen. I Was Mostly Raised By My Mother And She Could Cook, So I Never Perfected That Skill. If I Had To Count On My Own Cooking To Survive, I'd Probably Be Thinner.

I Try To Cast Really Good Actors And Give Them A Chance To Do Their Very Best Work, Give Them As Much Time And Space As They Need.

School Plays Are Fine. Theater In School Is Fine.

I Knew I Had To Get Out Of Boston And Stop Making Movies There, At Least For One Movie, Otherwise No One Would Ever Consider Me For A Movie That Took Place South Of Providence.

The First Star Wars Movie Had Come Out In 1977 And Had Become This Huge Phenomenon With All The Toys And Everything - It Just Kind Of Swept America.

There Are Two Things For A Marriage To Be Good. One Is To Work Hard On It. The Other One Is To Marry Above You. And I Succeeded At Both Of Those.

I Don't Spend Too Much Time Just Kicking Back.

When I Look Up At The Screen And See Myself I Always Have To Laugh. Not Because I Think I'm Doing A Horrible Job, Quite The Contrary, I Just Feel It's So Surreal To Feel Like One Person Can Entertain So Many At One Time.

Online Gambling Is Very Seductive And Very Illusory. It Can Seem Like A Really Good Idea. It Can Seem Like What People Told You To Work Hard And Get Ahead, But When Someone Shows You Something And It's Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is.

Jen Came First, And Then They Wanted To Cast Somebody That Would... Kevin Liked The Idea Of Having A Kind Of The Ghost Of That Character Kind Of Haunt The Movie In A Way Throughout, By Having Raquel Look So Much Like Her. And Also, It Was Sort Of Serendipity. I Mean, She Was Also The Best Actress. I Mean, As You Can See Raquel Has A Pretty Appealing, Engaging Kind Of Precocious, Sparkly Quality That's... It Was Just Luck Really That She Happened To The Film.

Family Is A Wonderful Thing, But It Doesn't Mean You Can't Do Other Stuff In Your Life. In Fact, Having A Family Makes Whatever Other Thing You Have That Much Richer. If It Was Just Me, I'd Be Home Alone And Think, 'well, Something Good Happened At Work,' But It's Much Nicer To Share It With People You Love.

I Really Feel That's Part Of Why Audiences Go To Movies Now Is To Take You To A World You Have No Access To, Whether It's The World Of Avengers Or Middle-earth Or Bars In Boston You Would Be Afraid To Go Into. You See Characters There - They Aren't Hobbits But They're Close.

People Ascribe A Certain Kind Of Silliness To The Movie Business. Everybody Feels Like, "in The Movies, They Do Crazy Stuff."

I'm Much More Interested In What An Actor Has To Say About Something Substantial And Important Than Who They're Dating Or What Clothes They're Wearing Or Some Other Asinine, Insignificant Aspect Of Their Life.

There's A Lot Of Romance To Sort Of Living By Your Own Rules And Sort Of Not Subscribing To What Society Tells You To Do, But Society Pushes Back Pretty Strongly, So There's A Lot Of Compromise That Goes With That.

I Find Forgiveness To Be Really Healthy.

I Learned That As A Director, You're Around All These Talented People, So You Have This Window That All These Really Good Ideas Can Come In To Help Your Movie, So You're Crazy To Close Them. You Need To Be Inspiring People, Engaging People. There Are Lots Of People Who Are Really Good At Their Jobs But Might Not Know Or Feel Like They Want To Come Up To People And Get Them To Participate And Want To Do Their Best.

I Recognize That Hollywood Is Not About Seniority. Often It's Not Even A Meritocracy. It's About What You Did Yesterday. You Have A Couple Of Misses, And Suddenly It's Impossible To Find A Hit. So The Swings Are Gigantic. But I've Always Understood It As Such, And Navigated It As Such.

I Have Three Women In The House. I Get To Be Wrong Three Times A Day.

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