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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.

-Nicolas Cage

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I Remember Once Imagining

Nicolas Cage

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

How Do You Rebel In A Family Of Rebels?

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.

My House Is Basically A Trailer. I Live A Circus Lifestyle. I'm Always Moving. It's Not Always Easy For People That Live With Me, But That's The Path I Chose.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My Best Takes Are My First Two Takes.

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'm The First To Admit That I Like Going To, Or My Memories At Least Of Going To Clint Eastwood Movies Or Charles Bronson Or James Bond.

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

I Think That Movies Can Help Guide Us Through Those Experiences [the Problems That Are Happening In Our Daily Lives, The Stresses Between Countries, The Economy And Global Warming]. I Think All Art Tries To Grapple With, Redefine, Come To Terms With, Express What's Happening Now When It's Working. You Can Be Entertained, But You Can Also Be Stimulated To Think About Things.

I Do Enjoy Animated Movies.

Animated Movies

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

I Have Eclectic Tastes In The Movies I Want To 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 Think A Good Movie Is A Good Movie Whether That Falls Into A Genre Or Not.

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.

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

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

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.

Hollywood Didn't Know If I Was An Actor Or A Nut Or If I Was This Crazy Character I Was Playing. I Had Developed An Image Of Being A Little Bit Unusual, Different And Wild.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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 Got A Little Tired Of Movies Where I Had To Shoot People. I Got To Thinking About The Power Of Film And What That Power Is. The Power Is In Fact That It Really Can Change People's Minds.

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.

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.

The Movies I Cannot Go Without And That I Watch Annually Are 'a Clockwork Orange,' 'scarface' And 'fantasia.'

My Father Once Said, 'if You're In The Desert And You're Dying Of Thirst, Are You Going To Drink A Glass Of Blood Or Are You Going To Drink A Glass Of Water?' I Think What He Was Trying To Say, Interesting Coming From My Blood Father, Is Sometimes There Are People In Your Family That Can Be Toxic.

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

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

Every Great Story Seems To Begin With A Snake.

One Of The Pluses Of Getting Older Is You Set Some Limits.

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.

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

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.

Nobody Wants To Watch Perfection.

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.

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.

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

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

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 Haven't Isolated Myself. I Am Not Living On A Yacht Somewhere. I Am Not Tucked Away Or Behind A Gate Somewhere. I Am Not Flying On A Private Plane. I Am Going To The Airport, I Am With People, Some Of The Interactions Are Good, Some Of Them Are Not So Good, But It Keeps Me In Touch With Being, You Know, Part Of Society.

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 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.

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.

More Than Ever, Movies Reveal Themselves As Healing, As Helpful, As Encouraging, As Escapist - Anything That Makes Someone Get Through Their Day In These Times. It's The Best Form Of Entertainment, And It's Still Arguably The Most Inexpensive Form Of Entertainment.

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

Science Fiction Is A Way That I Can Go Into The Abstract, Go Into The Imagination, And Audiences Are Still Willing To Go Along For The Ride.

How Do You Say One Actor Is Better Than Another Actor? You Can Definitely Say That In The Olympics If It's The Same Race And Someone Wins The Race. The Only Way To Really Do It And Have It Be Sincere Would Be If You Get All The Actors Together, And They're All Playing The Same Part, And Then You Rate Which One Made You Feel The Most.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

As I Got Older, With My Work, I Became Aware Of The Responsibility Of Film, And I Feel One Of The Best Ways I Can Apply Myself As An Actor, Is To Go Beyond Movie Stardom And Celebrity.

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

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

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.

I've Acted Professionally Since I Was 16.

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

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.

I Know There's Been A Lot That's Been Said About Animated Voice Work, As Though It's 'you Can Do This In Your Jeans And There's No Camera And No Pressure There. It's No Big Deal. It's Easy.' The Truth Is, It's Really A Great Test: How Deep Is Your Ability Is To Access Your Imagination?

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

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.

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

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.

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

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."

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

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.

I Don't Want To Just Do Independent Movies And I Don't Want To Just Do Adventure Films. I Enjoy Both, And I Think Both Are Cogent.

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.

Feel Like Real Time Unfolding. It's Going To Smack Of Reality And Feel As Real As It Can ... The Buildings Themselves Aren't (shown) ... The Movie's About What Happened Amongst This Handful Of Men When The Buildings Came Down.

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.

I Love Working With Younger Actors Because They Always Come Into The Game Full Of Energy And Ideas That Challenge Me And Keep Me Learning And Stimulated.

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.

Sometimes People Think I'm Wearing A Wig When I'm Not Wearing A Wig, And Then Sometimes They Think I'm Not Wearing A Wig When I Am Wearing A Wig.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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 Cry A Lot. My Emotions Are Very Close To My Surface. I Don't Want To Hold Anything In So It Festers And Turns Into Pus - A Pustule Of Emotion That Explodes Into A Festering Cesspool Of Depression.

I Went To New Orleans For The First Time For Wild At Heart, And I Kept Going Back To Make More Movies There. I've Become Very Close To The City And Part Of Me Does Feel Like A New Orleanian.

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.

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.

When I Act, I Hear It Like Music. In My Head, I Hear The Dialogue Like Music.

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.

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

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.

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

I Will Promise You That If I Can Give You Two Good Scenes -- Which Is What I Always Try To Do In Every Movie -- Then I Feel Like I'm Doing My Job.

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

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.

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

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.

Nobody Ever Thinks Clearly At The Airport.

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

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

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

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.

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'm Not A Trained Actor. I'm Someone Who Is Autodidactic And Learned On My Own.

To Be A Good Actor You Have To Be Something Like A Criminal, To Be Willing To Break The Rules To Strive For Something New.

When You're Playing Supernatural Characters, There's An Infinite Number Of Possibilities With A Character. And I Also Think They're Wonderful And Entertaining For The Whole Family. You Don't Have A High Body Count.

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.

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

National Treasure

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

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

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 Think I Jump Around More When I'm Alone.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

I Like Both Blu-ray And Dvd, But Blu-ray Gives You More Options.

I Think That 'ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance' Was Mentally Taxing, If Only Because I Had To Go To A Christmas Party Shortly After I Had Wrapped Photography In Romania At Two In The Morning As The Ghost Rider. The Invitation Had A Christmas Ornament On It With Ghost Rider's Face On It As A Tree.

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

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 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.

To Begin... To Begin... How To Start? I'm Hungry. I Should Get Coffee. Coffee Would Help Me Think. Maybe I Should Write Something First, Then Reward Myself With Coffee. Coffee And A Muffin. Okay, So I Need To Establish The Themes. Maybe A Banana-nut. That's A Good Muffin.

I Like The Idea Of Being Involved In Pictures That Can Entertain The Entire Family And Can Stimulate Youngsters Into Looking At Picture Books. There's Nothing Wrong With That.

Zoology Has Always Been Interesting To Me. Nature Is Fascinating.

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.

I Think It's No Secret That I've Tried To Take Chances In My Career And Also In My Life, And I Believe To Not Live In Fear.

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.

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.

I'm Very Impressed With 'drive.'

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

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.

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.

And What I Like About It Is It Makes Me Happy And I Think It Makes A Lot Of People Happy To Go To The Movies And To Not Think About The Problems Of The Day Or The Problems Of Tomorrow Or The Yesterday And Just Go On For The Ride And Have The Fun Of Losing Oneself In A Fantasy.

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

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.

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

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

I've Always Believed That The Greatest Actors Are The Ones That Have The Voices That Are Imitable.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I See Myself As A Student. I Would Never Call Myself A Master Or A Maestro. If You Take The Path Of The Student, That Means You Have To Try A Little Bit Of Everything In Hopes That You're Going To Learn Something Or Strike Some Kind Of New Note, Expression In The Process. I'm Not Going For Grades; I'm Going For An Education. I'm Going To Continue Experimenting And Trying New Things To Try To Evolve And Learn.

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

When I Was Eight, I Would Look At The Cover Of The 'ghost Rider' Comic Book In My Little Home In Long Beach, California, And I Couldn't Get My Head Around How Something That Scary Could Also Be Good. To Me It Was My First Philosophical Awakening - 'how Is This Possible, This Duality?'

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

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

I Like Being At That Place Where You Can Either Fall Or Stand. That's Where I Think You Really Have A Shot At Doing Something Truthful.

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.

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.

I've Been Lucky To Work With Some Of The Most Creative People And It's True That I Enjoy Filmmaking And I'm An Enthusiast.

The End Of The World Is On People's Minds. We Have The Power To Destroy Or Save Ourselves, But The Question Is What Do You Do With That Responsibility.

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 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.

Everything We Do Impacts Someone Else's Life.

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 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.

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

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?

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

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

Movies Work, In My Opinion, On The Best Level When They're More Enigmatic, When We Don't Say It's This Or That And Where It Raises More Questions Than Answers.

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

I'm Going To Steal The Declaration Of Independence.

National Treasure

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

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