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I'm Not Really Interested In Playing Famous People. I Prefer To Create Characters. And I Hope I Have An Exciting Enough Life That Somebody Might Make A Movie About That One Day. I Don't Want To Make Movies About Other People. I Was Once Approached About Playing Salvador Dali, Which I Thought Would've Been Fun Until I Found Out That He Was Proud Of Kicking A Blind Man Across The Street. So, I Decided, I Didn't Want To Play That Guy. So, I Think I'll Just Keep It The Way It Is.

-Nicolas Cage

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I'm Not Really Interested

Nicolas Cage

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I'm Not Really Interested In Playing Famous People. I Prefer To Create Characters. And I Hope I Have An Exciting Enough Life That Somebody Might Make A Movie About That One Day. I Don't Want To Make Movies About Other People. I Was Once Approached About Playing Salvador Dali, Which I Thought Would've Been Fun Until I Found Out That He Was Proud Of Kicking A Blind Man Across The Street. So, I Decided, I Didn't Want To Play That Guy. So, I Think I'll Just Keep It The Way It Is.

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I Think That If You Go About Making Movies To Win Oscars, You’re Really Going About It The Wrong Way.

It May Come As A Surprise To People, But I'm Actually Quite Boring And Normal. What Do I Do? I Read Books. I Drive My Kid To School. I Have Lunch With My Wife. I Pick My Kid Up From School. I Go Home.

I Invite The Entire Spectrum, Shall We Call It, Of Feeling. Because That Is My Greatest Resource As A Film Actor. I Need To Be Able To Feel Everything, Which Is Why I Refuse To Go On Any Kind Of Medication. Not That I Need To! But My Point Is, I Wouldn't Even Explore That, Because It Would Get In The Way Of My Instrument.

My Father Always Used To Say To Me, It Doesn’t Matter What The Profession Is, But If They’re The Best In Their Field, It Will Always Be Fascinating To Watch.

Disney Has A Great Tradition Of Enchanting Children And Giving Them Something To Behold.

I Like Fantasy. I Like Horror, Science Fiction Because I Can Get Avant-garde With Those Performances In Those Movies.

I Needed To Change My Name Just To Liberate Myself And Find Out I Could Do It Without Walking Into A Hollywood Casting Office With The Name Coppola.

I Don't Want You To Think That I'm Up Late Reading A Stack Of Spider-man Comics And Eating A Tray Of Lemon Cookies While Sucking My Thumb. I'm Not Doing That. But I Am Loyal To The Influences Of My Childhood.

I Like To Work With Young People, Because Young People Haven’t Had Their Dreams Kicked Out Of Them Yet. Full Of Confidence, And Imagination, And Vision, And When They Score That All Gets Empowered.

I Know What It's Like To Meet Someone You Admire And Have Them Be A Complete Jerk.

One Of My Goals Is To Have A Base Near Mainland China. I Think Hong Kong Would Be A Good Match For Me. I Like Being In Hong Kong.

Picasso Said Art Is A Lie That Tells The Truth. What If You Just Want To Tell The Truth And Not Lie About It?

That Was One Of The Reasons Why I Wanted To Tell The Story Of Colin Price. I Saw Someone In This Fictionalized Political Character That Was Trying To Do Something Important For His City. He Meant Well, But Then You See That The Human Flaws Had Really Derailed His Past. It Seems To Be Happening More And More In Our Country. I Wanted To Hold A Mirror Up To That.

Personally, My Interests Are Ancient History And Ancient Civilizations. In My Own Life, I'd Like To Go To Places Like Easter Island.

I'm Not Afraid To Play Ugly - Look At 'adaptation.' I Looked Like A Turd That A Cat Had Coughed Up.

If You Have People That Totally Support You And Have Your Back, I Feel Like You Have All The Confidence In The World, And You Believe That You Can Do Things That Most People Can't Achieve. I Feel That's Really Important.

I Would Love To Work With Tim Burton. I Think We Would Be Very Good Together.

I Certainly Would Never Overstep My Bounds And Make Suggestions To A Director. As An Actor I'm Trying To Fit To The Best Of My Abilities Within The Director's Vision, And Trying To Find Some Happy Rapport Where We Can Both Bring Something To It That's Fresh. Usually I've Been Lucky In Working With Directors Who Have Trusted My Instincts.

Remakes Are Always A Challenge And They Always Are Sitting Ducks.

Tattoos To Me Are The Outward Symbol Of The Inward Change Within My Soul.

You Get Dinged For Wanting To Do A Comedy, Then Wanting To Do A Big-budget Action Film, And Then Wanting To Do An Indie. But You Can't Let Other People Trying To Label You Get In The Way Of Trying To Do Something Artistically.

I Always Say To Myself That If I Can Make A Movie That Makes A Kid Smile Or Gives Them Some Hope Or Something To Get Excited About, Then I'm Applying Myself In The Best Way That I Can. I Don't Think That Just Goes For Kids. I Think That It Goes For Adults, As Well, And For Families.

I Don't Want To Sit Around By The Pool Luxuriating With A Margarita. That's Just Not What I Want To Do.

Children, To Me, Are Of The Utmost Importance. They're Really The Future, Aren't They?

Having Been A Father For 19 Years I Realise Fatherhood Has Changed Me.

I Have A Love-hate Relationship With New Orleans, Which Is The Strongest Sort Of Relationship. I've Had Some Extraordinary, Beautiful, Poetic Experiences In This City And I've Had Some Terrible Experiences In This City. I'm Drawn To New Orleans, In Many Ways Feel I Grew Up In New Orleans, Even Though I'm From The West.

In This Day And Age, Where You Have A Lot Of Comic Book Movies Made Every Day, And Most Of Them Are Really Good Boys, It's Important To Have A Couple Bad Boys Out There, Too.

When I Started Experimenting With Fantasy And Horror Films And Looking For Characters Who Had Some Sort Of Emotional Or Mental Difficulty, I Saw Opportunities To Express My Music - Dare I Say Art - In A Way That I Could Get A Bit Surreal.

Celebrity Is A Word I Take Great Umbrage With. I'm Actively Anti-celebrity.

I Came Out Of Independent Film, That's My Roots.

Mel Blanc Is A Hero Because Of What He Could Do With His Voice For All The Looney Tunes, The Warner Brothers Cartoons, To Be The Voice Of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. To Me, He's A Great Actor.

Snakes Are Sometimes Perceived As Evil, But They Are Also Perceived As Medicine. If You Look At An Ambulance, There's The Two Snakes On The Side Of The Ambulance. The Caduceus, Or The Staff Of Hermes, There's The Two Snakes Going Up It, Which Means That The Venom Can Also Be Healing.

The Biggest Problem For Me Was Feeling That As I Became More Balanced And A Better Man That I Wouldn't Have The Fire To Create From.

I Have Dogs, And It's No Secret That I Find Reptiles Interesting, But The Thing About Reptiles Is That They Really Just Wanna Be Left Alone, And I Understand Them. It's, 'don't Pick Me Up, Stop Holding Me, Don't Look At Me, Just Leave Me Alone.' I Have To Admit, Sometimes I Feel Like That.

Film Has Lost Something In The Translation To High Tech. It's Become So Super-real. It's With Digital This And Stereo That, And Everything's Like A Cd.

I Find Children Inspiring. The Way They Look At The World. The Magical World They Live In, To Me, Is Inspiring.

All Of My Characters Have A Glint Of Madness.

It's No Secret That I've Always Had An Interest In Mythology. Whether It's Arthurian Or Ancient Greek Or Even Marvel Universe. I've Always Connected With It On Some Level.

If I Do Do A Sequel, I'm Going To Have To Know For Sure That The Script Is Better Than The Original. So I'm Going To Be Very Careful About That Because I'm Not Eager To Repeat Myself.

I Think What Makes People Fascinating Is Conflict, It's Drama, It's The Human Condition. Nobody Wants To Watch Perfection.

With My Name In Cement, I Feel Actualised. - On Cementing His Hand Prints On Sunset Boulevard

My Mother Was A Dancer, So I Like To Use The Body As Part Of The Instrument Of Acting.

For Me, Acting Was A Way Of Taking Destructive Energy And Doing Something Productive With It, And In That Way It Was Quite A Life Saver.

I Think The Paparazzi Might Have Chased Me Out Of Los Angeles.

Good Science Fiction Is Intelligent. It Asks Big Questions That Are On People's Minds. It's Not Impossible. It Has Some Sort Of Root In The Abstract.

I Generally Enjoy The Rehearsal Process Because That's Where You Can Share Your Ideas, Get Your Thoughts And Feelings Out And See Whether Or Not They're Going To Land, Whether Or Not People Are Going To Agree With Them, Particularly The Director. So You Can Sort Out In That Process Any Elements That Need To Be Sorted Out Before You're On The Set, And Of Course That Saves Time And It Also Makes Everyone More Comfortable Working Together.

How Do You Rebel In A Family Of Rebels?

Halloween Has Always Been Fascinating To Me From A Very Young Age. I Think Any Actor Would Be Fascinated By Halloween Because It's One Of The Only Holidays That Advocates Dressing Up In Makeup And Costumes And Transforming Oneself.

I Hit The Ground Running, Without A Lot Of Training, So I Had To Do Whatever I Could Do To Survive As A Professional, And If That Meant Being That Character 24/7 And Acting Out, I Was Going To Do That. I Lived Those Characters, I Brought Them Home With Me.

Every Great Story Seems To Begin With A Snake.

I Want To Try To Apply My Abilities Sometimes To Make Families Happy, So I Have To Make Movies At A Venue That Are Not Gratuitously Violent, That Are Not Using Bullets And Bloodshed, But Are Using Things Like Magic And Fantasy And Enchantment And The Imagination. To Me That's Just All Positive Stuff. But I Am Eclectic And I Still Like To Make Movies For The Midnight Audience As Well.

Those Who Have The Ability To Take Action Have The Responsibility To Take Action.

National Treasure

If I Could Have Been A Marine Biologist I Would Have, But I Didn't Have That Kind Of Intelligence. Numbers Were Never My Strong Point.

Acting Is Always At The Core Of My Life, But I'm Also Excited About Producing. I'm Excited About Directing, And I Have A Life In The Filmmaking World, And So I Want To Explore All Aspects Of It, Not Just The Acting, But Acting Is The Root.

I Do Like To Move And Get Physical In My Movies.

God Bless My Father, But He Always Spoke In This Continental, Literary Accent, Probably Because He Was A Professor Of Comparative Literature And He Made The Decision To Speak With Distinction.

The Fact That 'astro Boy' Appealed To Me As A Boy In America Was Proof That The Story And Character Transcend Cultural Stereotypes.

I Love All Animals. I Have A Fascination With Fish, Birds, Whales - Sentient Life - Insects, Reptiles.

People Often Say That You Should Never Work With Child Actors. I Think That's All Wrong. Children Have Not Had The Imagination Kicked Out Of Them By Life Experience And Adulthood. So, They Still Are Very Much Alive With That Kind Of Magical Thinking Which Enables An Actor To Believe They're In These Circumstances And Make Them Real To You.

I Use Technology For Communication, But I Don't Have A Blackberry Or An Iphone. I Use An Outdated Cell Phone, But I'm Fine With It.

It's A Family That's Loaded With Grudges And Passion. We Come From A Long Line Of Robbers And Highwaymen In Italy, You Know. Killers, Even.

I Guess It Would Fall Into The Stalker Category More Or Less. I Was Being Stalked By A Mime - Silent But Maybe Deadly. Somehow, This Mime Would Appear On The Set Of 'bringing Out The Dead' And Start Doing Strange Things. I Have No Idea How It Got Past Security. Finally, The Producers Took Some Action And I Haven't Seen The Mime Since. But It Was Definitely Unsettling.

Film Acting Is One Of The Only Industries Where You're Criticized For Working Hard. In Any Other Industry, It's Considered A Quality And Something To Behold.

I Always Wanted To Find A Way To Apply My Acting In A Big Mad Monster Movie Where I Was Transforming Into This Scary Entity.

I Came Out Of Independent Film, That's My Roots. I Used My Independent Film As A Laboratory, And Used What I Could Discover In That Laboratory.

How Do You Rebel In A Family Of Rebels? That's The Age-old Question. I Guess I Could Have By Not Going Into The Arts, But The Thing Is, I Couldn't Do Anything Else.

Yeah, My Real Name Is Coppola. I Changed It Because They'd Think I Was Some Nepotism-oriented Kid.

I Love Art, I Love Music. I Can Listen To Stockhausen And A Very Experimental, Avant-garde Approach, And I Can Listen To Beethoven And Have A More Classical, Traditional Approach. Why Not Be Able To Do That With Film Performance?

Generally My Instinct Is To Not Do Biographical Movies. I Want To Build Characters And Not Be Locked Into Playing A Part In History.

When I Won The Oscar, I Made A Point Of Actively Going Against That And Doing Adventure Films Like 'con Air' And 'gone In 60 Seconds,' Not What Would Be Expected.

I'm Always Curious About What Happens When We Die. And I'd Like To Think That Somehow The Spirit Goes On. I'd Rather Not Think That It's Just About This.

The Most Meaningful Movies I Can Make Are The Ones Where Parents Can Share Them With Their Children And Children Can Look Forward To Sharing Them With Their Parents, A Ritual If You Will, Where They Get To Spend Time Together And The Kids Are Smiling.

My Father Was Always Getting Excited About Something. It's Genetically Inside Me Somewhere.

One Of The Great Bonuses Of Being A Film Actor Is That I Get To Go To Different Places, Meet Inspiring People And Learn Different Things. So All Those Details Add Up.

Nobody Can Make A Movie As Exciting As Jerry Bruckheimer. When It's A Jerry Bruckheimer Movie That It's Going To Have Lots Of Chrome And Gloss, It's Going To Be Sexy, And It's Going To Be Big And Fun.

I Really Think It's Important That My Beliefs Don't Impinge Upon What You Get From The Movie. It's Your Opinion That Matters And It's Far More Interesting Than Mine.

I Like Movies Where You Feel Like You're Going Into Another World, And No Matter How Many Times You Watch It, You're Gonna See Something New In That World. That Level Of Detail Really Inspires Me.

I Don't Know Why It Is, But I Do Like Dancing In The Extreme Situations. I Like That Noise, I Like That Intensity. For Some Reason, It's What I Respond To In Terms Of My Taste And Of My Instincts.

It's Amazing Marrying Someone Who Wants Nothing To Do With Hollywood.

I Don't Like It When People On The Street Say "smile" Or "cheer Up." It's A Real Cheap Line. I'm Feeling Good. I'm Feeling Real Grateful For Everything. It's A Solid Time In My Life. When People Say I Look Sad, They're Wrong.

I Don't Want A Perfect Character, I Want A Character Who Has, As Strange As It Sounds, Some Humanity, Some Flaws, Some Needs.

These So Called Popcorn Movies, Or Family Movies, Actually Provide Something Quite Beautiful And Something Quite Necessary, Which Is A Family Bonding Experience.

I Got Into Film Acting Because I Wanted To Be James Dean. We Lost Him At A Very Young Age - He Was Only 24 - But I’m 51 Going On 52, So There's Only So Many Times You Can Act Like James Dean. I Had To Find New Ways Of Expressing Myself That Kept Me Fascinated With Film Performance.

I Care About The Connection With The Audience. Film Is Such A Powerful Medium. Movies Can Change The Way People Think.

I Do Enjoy Animated Movies. I Really Love Anime And Movies Like 'spirited Away' And 'howl's Moving Castle.'

I Have A Love/ Hate Relationship With The City Of New Orleans, Which Is The Strongest Kind Of Relationship.

'knowing' Is One Of Those Movies Where You're Going To Get The Spectacle, And You're Going To Have The Entertainment In The Grand Science Fiction Tradition. But Also, It Will Perhaps Stimulate Some Discussion To Help You Sort Out On Your Own Where You Might Choose To Go In Terms Of Your Own Needs. Now, I Say That Without Preaching.

I'm Always Fearful Of Something Happening To People I Love. That Doesn't Go Away.

It's Important To Keep The Eccentric Spirit Alive, Because When That Goes, The Work Will Go.

I've Always Maintained That I See Myself As A Student. There's Always Something To Learn And Be Challenged By And Hopefully Grow From.

Shock Is Still Fun. I Won't Ever Shut The Door On It.

When I Work, I Really Try To Get Absorbed In The Character. Unless I Want To Do Something Playful With The Camera, I'm Not Too Worried About Where The Camera Is Or Positions.

I Didn't Play The Ghost Rider In The First Movie. That Was A Stuntman. In This Film, The Ghost Rider Feels Much More Alive Because I Did Put Some Thought Into How He Should Walk And Into How He Should Move. I Was So Into The Character, In Fact, That I Would Paint My Face With White And Black Makeup To Look Like A Skull. And I Put On Blacked-out Contact Lenses, So I Almost Looked Like An Afro-new Orleanian Voodoo Icon By The Name Of Baron Samedi. Oh Man, I Would Walk Around The Set Without Saying A Word To Anybody, And I Could See The Fear In My Co-stars' And Co-directors' Eyes.

I Just Want To Keep Making Movies That Hopefully Makes Some Kids Smile.

I'm Not Really Gadget Oriented. I'm Not Into Technology Or Computers. I'm Not Good At Interfacing With That Sort Of Gear.

Actors Work With Their Look. I Come From The Lon Chaney Sr. School Of Acting. I'll Wear Wigs, I'll Wear Nose Pieces, I'll Wear Green Contact Lenses In My Eyes. I'll Do Whatever I Need To Do To Create A Character.

One Day, One Of My Dreams Is To Someday Get To Do Nemo In '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.'

You Can't Make Your Choices Based On What Critics Think. You Have To Make Your Choices Based On What's Honest For You.

I Wanted To Make An Image For Myself As An Outlaw Type. A Kind Of Rock 'n' Roll Sensibility.

I Want To Always Find New Ways Of Reinventing Myself.

There Are Over 550 Million Firearms In Worldwide Circulation. That's One Firearm For Every Twelve People On The Planet. The Only Question Is, How Do We Arm The Other 11?

I Haven't Made Anything I Don't Believe In. I've Always Started A Movie With A Song In My Heart, And Even When I'm A Little Unclear About It, Something Magical Happens And It Comes Into Focus In A Way That I'm Feeling Good About.

I'm At The Point Now Where I Know I'm Doing Something Right When A Movie Gets Mixed Reviews, Because Then I'm Not In The Box. I Don't Want To Make It Too Easy For People And I Don't Want To Make It Too Easy For Myself. I Want To Try Something Unusual.

Don't Lose The Best Thing In Your Life Just Because You Are Not Sure.

I'm One Of Those People That Feels That Americans That Shouldn't Do Shakespeare... The Rhythms Of The English Language And The Mannerisms Of The English Speech Seems To Work Effortlessly With William Shakespeare, But When Americans Do It, Something Seems Stuck.

There's A Fine Line Between The Method Actor And The Schizophrenic.

I'm A Seeker. I'm Very Much A Believer In Science. But I Do Think There Are Times When Science And Mysticism Intersect.

I'm Not Really Interested In Playing Famous People. I Prefer To Create Characters. And I Hope I Have An Exciting Enough Life That Somebody Might Make A Movie About That One Day. I Don't Want To Make Movies About Other People. I Was Once Approached About Playing Salvador Dali, Which I Thought Would've Been Fun Until I Found Out That He Was Proud Of Kicking A Blind Man Across The Street. So, I Decided, I Didn't Want To Play That Guy. So, I Think I'll Just Keep It The Way It Is.

As A Child, These Colourful Superheroes That Could Fly, Or Were Horrifying Like Ghost Rider And The Hulk, With This Tremendous Rage Or These Supernatural Powers, Provided An Escape For Me From My Mundane Existence, From My Lack Of Friends Or My Inability To Communicate Well With People. They Liberated Me.

I Think On Some Level, All Of Us Have A Little Bit Of Belief In The Possibility Of Different Energies And Forces And Things Like That. Otherwise, We Wouldn't Be Afraid Of Them. Or There Wouldn't Be So Many Movies About Them.

I Think Anything That Opens My Mind And Triggers My Imagination I'm Reading. I Like To Read Science Fiction And Imagine The Character. Anything That Keeps My Imagination Flowing.

In The Beginning My Energy And Passion For Acting Came From An Almost Punk Rock Need To Express A Lot Of Anger Wherever That May Have Come From. As I Got Older, It Became Or Is Coming More From A Place Of Wanting To Use The Craft To Help Others In Some Way, To Hold A Mirror Up To The Situations That We're Going Through, To Actually Be More Cautious About The Way That I Use The Power Of Film And To See If There's Anything That I Can Do In The Performances That Will Resonate In The Public A Similar String That's On People's Minds And Is On My Mind. That Way We Have That Relationship.

There Is A Misperception, If You Will, In Critical Response Or Even In Hollywood, That I Can Only Do Exaggerated Characters. Or What They Would Call Over-the-top Performances. Well, This Is Completely False.

Everything We Do Impacts Someone Else's Life.

I Try Not To Be Proud. I Try To Actively Attack Pride.

I Always See America As Really Belonging To The Native Americans. Even Though I'm American, I Still Feel Like A Visitor In My Own Country.

Native American

I Always Say, If You Think It’s Over The Top Then Tell Me Where The Top Is First. I Don’t Think Anyone Can. But If You Can Tell Me Where The Top Is Then I’ll Tell You Whether Or Not I’m Over It.

Hopefully As A Result Of 'the Frozen Ground,' More And More People Will Be Aware Of The Horrible Things That Happen To Ladies All Over The World And Give Them Respect. This Movie Is A Love Letter To Those Victims.

I Love It All. I Don't Want To Go Through My Career With One Hand Tied Behind My Back. I Love Making Kids Happy. I Love The Midnight Audience. I Like Intense Dramas. And I Like High-adrenaline Action Films.

I Really Would Like To Be Able To Face All My Superstitions That May Have Existed And Walk Under The Ladder And Do Everything You're Not Supposed To Do.

I Was Very Happy With Vampire's Kiss, Which In My Opinion Was Almost Like An Independent Laboratory To Start Realizing Some Of My More Expressionistic Dreams With Film Performance. Then Using What I Had Learned In Vampire's Kiss And Putting It Into A Very Big Action Movie In The Form Of Face/off With John Woo. If You Look At Those Two Movies Back To Back, You Can See Where I Stole From My Performance In Vampire's Kiss.

As A Teenager I Was More Of An Anarchist, But Now I Want People To Thrive And Be Harmonious.

Guy Pearce Is Very Precise And Clear About Understanding The Rhythm And The Music Of A Scene.

I Don't Think Movies Are The Reason Why This Violence Exists, I Think It's Going To Happen Whether Movies Are There Or Not.

With Every Action Oriented Or Adventure Film, There's Going To Be A Moment When Every Actor Becomes A Stuntman And Every Stuntman Becomes An Actor. You Try To Do As Much Of It As You Can, But Inevitably The Studio Wants You To Finish The Movie. So You've Got To Slow Down And You're Really Got To Defer To Your Team To Make Sure You Do.

I Don't Find The Same Things Funny That Many Other People Seem To Find Funny. I Don't Really Respond To Sex Jokes And Things Like That, And Some Of My Friends Look At Me And Go, "come On, Nic, That Was My Best Joke. Why Aren't You Laughing?" I Go, "i Really Don't Know Why I'm Not Laughing. I'm Sort Of Out Of Sync With It." So I'd Have To Find Something That Was Really About Weird Human Behavior For Me To Laugh.

I Do Tend To Apply Myself To Projects That Make Me Uncomfortable Because Usually When That Happens I Try To Find A Way Of Existing In The Project That Is More Creative.

I Would Say That I'm 98 Percent Skeptical, But The Other 2 Percent [is] Open For The Possibility Of Things.

I Was Always Shocked When I Went To The Doctor's Office And They Did My X-ray And Didn't Find That I Had Eight More Ribs Than I Should Have Or That My Blood Was The Color Green.

I Happen To Still Like Really Dark, Dramatic, Fractured Characters. They're The Reason I Got Into Movies.

I Would Like To Find A Way To Embrace What Led Zeppelin Did, In Filmmaking.

Most Of My Favourite Moments In Film Have Been When I've Had An Opportunity To Say Something From Scratch, Something Original, Whether I Jotted Down A Few Lines Or It Came Out In Improvisation.

We've Become So Glorified In The Movie-star System That It's Become This Artificial Royalty. The Truth Is That We're Circus Clowns.

Without Mentioning Any Names, I Looked At Pretty Much Every Story That May Come To Your Mind About A Politician On The Rise Who Was Stopped Short Or Dragged Down By Personal Flaws And Then Became Just A Media Storm. I See This As A Thing That Continues To Happen In America And I Wanted To Say Something About That.

My Definition Of A Father Is Someone Who Empowers Their Children.

All Movies On Some Level Can Aspire To Be More Than Just Whatever The Label Is Of The Movie.

Peter Fonda Is The Reason I Became A Motorcyclist. I Saw Easy Rider And I Bought A Motorcycle The Next Day, And I Rode It All The Way From La To San Francisco.

My Direction As A Person Working In Film Has Been To Never Get Comfortable With Anything I Was Doing. At The Time That I Decided To Do Action Films, People Were Telling Me, "well, You Can't Do It. You're Not That Type. It's Not Going To Work." And So Obviously That Made Me Think, "well, That's Not Comfortable. Maybe I Should Try It. What Can I Do With It?" So I Did That, And I'm Glad I Did It. I'll Probably Do It Again, And I Did Other Kinds Of Things That Seemed Like Challenges For Me, Because I Like Being On The High Wire.

I Definitely Went Through My Magic Phase. I Think All Little Boys Do At Some Point Or Another - They Get Fascinated By Magic Tricks.

You Often Feel Like You Are On A High Wire With No Net Productions Because You Have To Rely On Spontaneity And Come Up With Ideas On The Spur Of The Moment - And Then What Happens Is That There Is Electricity To It That Gets Caught.

I Would Definitely Return To Austria. They Were All Good Experiences For Me, But Definitely Austria Because There Were Some Ancient Celtic, Sacred Sites That Were In The Forest That Were Quite Beautiful.

When You're Playing A Spirit From Another Dimension, You Really Can Do Anything And Get As Abstract As You Want And Still Have A Context That Will Work Within The Movie. I Wanted Ghost Rider To Move In A Way Where It Would Be Like A Bad Dream. I Thought About Cobra Snakes, And The Way That They Will Show You Their Backs And Sway In A Rhythmic Motion And Almost Lull You To Sleep Before Suddenly Attacking. Well, I Put That Into The Movie. And I Decided To Move My Head In The Jerky Way A Praying Mantis Does. So, I Did All These Things To Give The Movie A Feeling Of Otherness.

I'm Always Going To Judge Somebody On Their Work Ethic, And Whether Or Not They Made Me Feel Something, Or Whether Or Not I Felt They Did A Good Job. To Me, It's Important To Try To Block Anything Personal Out And Look At The Performance, In Any Field.

I Loved 'fantasia' As A Kid Because It Filled Me With Wonder, Enchantment And Awe. It Was My First Real Introduction Into Classical Music. It Was Totally Inspiring To Me.

I Believe That Everybody Has The Right To Believe What They Want To Believe And To Knock Somebody's Faith And Religion Is Foolish, Whatever It May Be - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism.

With The Advent Of This Kind Of Tmz Culture, It Sadly Seems To Have Infiltrated The Vanguard Of Film Commentary. I See These Reviews Sometimes Where I Think, Well, You Have A Right To Say Whatever You Want About My Work, And I Will Listen Whether It's Good Or Bad And See If There's Something That I Might Work With, But Personal Issues Don't Have A Place In Film Commentary.

I Just Try To Keep It Fresh. I Try To Keep It Interesting. The Truth Is My Roots Are Independently Spirited Dramas That Are Small, And I Will Always Go Back To That Well, Because That's Where I Broke Out Of. But I'm Going To Keep Doing As Many Different Movies As I Possibly Can.

Often You Hear Stories About Never Working With Children. I Disagree Because Children Still Have That Residual Magical Thinking. They Haven't Had Their Imagination Knocked Out Of Them By Turning Into Adults And Life Experiences.

Well, Amber [heard] Is Still Raising Her Eyebrow At Me Because I Said That I've Been 180 Miles Per Hour On The 405 Freeway On A Motorcycle And She Doesn't Believe Me But It's A True Story. I Did It Coming Home From Work At 3 In The Morning On Another Movie I Made About Cars Called Gone In 60 Seconds. I Bought A Yamaha-1 And I Was Doing 180 Miles Per Hour Home On The 405 And That's Really, Really Crazy But I Did It.

I've Acted Professionally Since I Was 16.

Some Things Are True Whether You Believe In Them Or Not.

I Do Like Characters That Have Flaws, Some Sort Of Pathos To Them That They Are Trying To Sort Out.

I'm Legally Unable To Ride Motorcycles. It's A Contract That I Have With My Life Insurance, So Whenever I Get A Chance To Do A Movie And Ride A Bike I Go For It.

I Think I've Become More Relaxed Throughout My Career. I Don't Feel The Need To Jump Up And Down And Make A Big Noise To Get People To Pay Attention To Me. I Don't Need To Do Punk Rock Gestures Or Eat A Cockroach Or Do Something Weird To Say I Exist.

I Think A Good Movie Is A Good Movie Whether That Falls Into A Genre Or Not.

Helen Mirren Is Someone That I Have Really Admired Ever Since I Saw Her In Excalibur. That Was The First Thing I Said To Her. "i Loved You As Morgan Le Fay."

You Can Choose Your Family Sometimes. You Can Choose People, It Could Be A Teacher, It Could Be A Professor, It Could Be Someone You Work With That Actually Genuinely Cares About You And Wants You To Succeed.

I'm Not An Anarchist Any More. I Still Love The Sex Pistols, But I Don't Want To Be A Punk Rocker All The Time, But I Do Want To Carry On Exploring New Forms Of Acting.

I Don't Drink Blood, And Last Time I Looked In The Mirror, I Had A Reflection.

I Believe That There's A Way To Question Authority With Manners, With Dignity. There's No Reason To Be Rude About It.

I Actually Enjoy Working With Green Screen, Because I Can Imagine All That Stuff Happening, And I Really Cut My Teeth On A Movie I Made Called "adaptation" Where I Had To Imagine Four-page Dialogue Scenes With My Twin Brother, Who Was Nothing More Than A Tennis Ball And A Gas Stand.

I'm An Enormous Admirer Of Christopher Lee. He's Somebody, Along With Vincent Price, Who I Celebrate, And I Wanted My Movies To Show That Celebration And That Honoring Of These Great Film Stars That Were Unafraid To Go Into Horror And Grand Guignol And The Macabre.

I Want To Make All Kinds Of Movies. I Do Want To Make Big Movies That Are A Lot Of Fun To Go To, But I Also Want To Make Movies That Are Going To Stimulate Some Thought And Maybe Raise Some Awareness.

Mike Myers As Austin Powers Makes Me Laugh - That Was Genius - And Daffy Duck Makes Me Laugh, But I Like Odd Behavior. I Don't Like Hip Dialogue And One-liners And All That Sort Of Cool, Sophomoric Comedy. It's Just Not For Me.

I Am Not A Demon. I Am A Lizard, A Shark, A Heat-seeking Panther. I Want To Be Bob Denver On Acid Playing The Accordion.

One Of The First Signs Of Being Depressed Is That You Lose Interest In Things. That's Why I Think It Is Important To Stay Passionate.

I Had Been Making A Lot Of Family Oriented Movies, Which I Also Like. But I Still Have A Passion For The Midnight Audience And For Midnight Movies.

Family Oriented

Nobody Ever Thinks Clearly At The Airport.

I Bought A Yamaha-1 And I Was Doing 180 Miles Per Hour Home On The 405 And That's Really, Really Crazy But I Did It.

Passion Is Very Important To Me. If You Stop Enjoying Things, You've Got To Look At It, Because It Can Lead To All Kinds Of Depressing Scenarios.

I Never Say Never, But I Haven't Been Given The Quality Of Script To Compel Me To Go On Television.

I Don't Know If My Wife Left Me Because Of My Drinking Or I Started Drinking 'cause My Wife Left Me.

I Always Add A Year To Myself, So I'm Prepared For My Next Birthday. So When I Was 39, I Was Already 40.

My Best Takes Are My First Two Takes.

I Try To Do As Many Stunts As They'll Let Me Do. I Think It's Important For An Audience To Feel That The Actor's Really Doing It.

I Remember Once Imagining What My Life Would Be Like, What I'd Be Like. I Pictured Having All These Qualities, Strong Positive Qualities That People Could Pick Up On From Across The Room. But As Time Passed, Few Became Qualities That I Actually Had. And All The Possibilities I Faced, And The Sorts Of People I Could Be, All Of Them Got Reduced Every Year To Fewer And Fewer Until Finally They Got Reduced To One - To Who I Am. And That's Who I Am.

We Do See Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi And Chow Yun Fat, But It's Very Rare To See The Chinese Male Actor In Hollywood Movies, Which Is Something I Take Great Umbrage With. You Know, My Son Is Asian. He May Want To Direct One Day; He May Want To Be An Actor Like His Father - And I Want That To Be Open To Him.

I Do Enjoy Animated Movies.

Animated Movies

I'm Sticking My Tongue Out In Scenes To Try To Make That Work In 3d. I'm Thinking I'll Try To Get My Tongue All The Way Out To The Second Row Of The Audience.

Well, Good Science Fiction Is Intelligent. It Asks Big Questions That Are On People's Minds. It's Not Impossible. It Has Some Sort Of Root In The Abstract. So Automatically You're Getting Closer To Potentially Divine Sources Of Interest Because It Is Abstract. It's One Of The Only Ways That A Film Actor Can Express Himself In The Abstract And Have Audiences Still Go Along For The Ride. They Don't Contend It. They Accept It, That They're Going To Go Places That Are A Bit More Of The Imagination, A Bit More Out There, And That's More And More Where I Like To Dance.

First Of All The Criteria That I Have That Goes Into Any Career Decision Is Whether Or Not I Have The Life Experience, Emotional Resources To Play The Part Truthfully Or The Imagination. Second, Would Be The Director.

I'm Very Impressed With 'drive.'

I Do Understand Sometimes When Actors Say There's No One To Talk To, Or You Can't React To, There's Truth In That, But For Me, I've Always Enjoyed Green Screen, And Blue Screen.

I Try To Keep My Characters Raising More Questions Than Giving Answers. I Don't Want To Leave Too Much On The Table. I Want You To Have Your Connection And Your Secret Understanding Of The Character.

Actors Have An Opportunity To Use Storytelling As A Way To Solve Pain.

Without Impending On Your Own Personal Choice, There Are Going To Be Those That Wear The Hat Of Religion And Those That Wear The Hat Of Science. I Still Don't Really Understand Why They Can't Wear Both Hats, Because Personally, I Think That They Go Beautifully Together.

I'll Speak For Myself, But There's A Lot Of Humor To Be Found In Sarcasm And Darkness. You Talk To Any Paramedic, They Survive By Developing A Pretty Off-kilter Sense Of Humor.

If You're Really Special, Meaning You're Doing Something Unique And Original, It Could Scare People.

I Was Thinking About Being More Global In My Work, Which Means Trying More Foreign Countries And Working With Foreign Filmmakers, Hoping They Would Give Me A New Take On My Work, A New Point Of View, Reinvent Me In Some Way.

You Aren't A True Internationalist Until You've Supplied Weapons To Kill Your Own Countrymen.

I Would Like To Hook Up With One Of The Great Japanese Filmmakers, Like The Master That Made Ringu, And I Would Like To Take 'the Wicker Man' To Japan, Except This Time He's A Ghost.

When You Have 400 People Watching You Making A Movie, It Doesn't Go Where You Want It To Go. It's A Lot Of Pressure.

Someone Like Vincent Price Or Somebody Like Christopher Lee, They Never Won An Award, And It Doesn't Matter. They're Cool.

Acting Is Like Any Other Art Form, In That You Have The Option To Go Very Big Or Go Very Small.

At A Young Age, I Was Interested In Comic Books, Which Was Really How I Learnt To Read. The Name Cage Came From A Comic Book Character Called Power Man.

It's Always Exciting When You Can Go Into A Mode Where You Can Be Both Spontaneous And Choreographed. Sort Of In Control And Out Of Control At The Same Time.

It's Kind Of A Unique Concept, But It's Totally Real, Isn't It? ... I Mean, These Paramedics Put Themselves In Incredibly Stressful Situations, Are Killing Themselves To Save Our Lives And They're Not Really Regarded Or Appreciated.

I Find It Inspiring And I Always Think When I'm Working On Something New, Whether It's A New Kind Of Character Or A New Kind Of Story Or New Kind Of Camera, It Gets My Creative Wheels Spinning.

I Knew I Wanted To Be An Actor When I Was Very Young. I Guess I Was About 6 Years Old At The Time, And I Was Fascinated By Television. I Started Having Waking Fantasies Where I Was In A Movie And There Were Crane Shots Of Me During A Scene.

God Bless The Popcorn Film. Especially Movies Where You Can Take The Kids, Because I Remember Looking Forward To Seeing These Movies With My Parents, And If I Can Give That Back, I'm Gonna Do It.

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