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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.

-Ben Affleck

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My Professional Success Is

Ben Affleck

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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.

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

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.

Not That It Entirely Matters: There Is A Perception That All Actors Make Their Movies. A Lot Of People Assume You're Responsible. George Clooney Told Me Actors Get All Of The Blame And All The Credit.

I Think I'd Rather Tell The Truth And Say What I Believe In And Make People Unhappy Than Sort Of Pretend To Think Something Else To Accommodate Them And Try To Be Liked. That's Just The Way It Goes And I Don't Think I'm Any Great Champion Of Anything, But If They're Going To Put Me On A Show, I'm Going To Say What I Think.

Affleck Was The Bomb In Phantoms.

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.

No Matter What You're Doing, If You're Trying To Make A Movie, You Need To Be Working With People That Are Really Good And Who Make You Better.

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.

A Friend Of My Mom's Was A Casting Director So, Really As Kind Of A Lark, I Had A Couple Of Acting Jobs That Had Just Enough Exposure To Give Me The Option To Continue If I Wanted To. I Followed Through With It.

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

You Get Old, You Slow Down.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

(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.

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.

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.

Marriage Hasn't Been My Thing. But Gay People, Knock Yourselves Out!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I Like That Best As I Am So Hairy.

One Of The Differences Between Now And Then Is That The Idea Of Body Image Is A Much Bigger Issue Now. Back Then, Just Being Kind Of Heavy And Barrel-chested Passed For Heroic. Now, You Wouldn't Dare To Play A Hero Without A Lot Of Dieting And Various Specialised Abdomen Machines. But That Was One Of The Things Which Was Interesting About It And I Did Want To Portray Because There's Good And Bad.

Its Not Who You Love. Its How.

It's Been Reinforced To Me, And It's A Little Cliche, But I've Learned That You Can't Make A Movie That Even Works, Much Less That's Good, Without Really Good Writing And Really Good Acting. That Lesson Has Led Me To Not Be Distracted, So Much, By The Other Stuff Going On In Filmmaking And To Focus On The Essence Of A Story, And The Words And The Events And The Way That Those Are Interpreted By The Actors. That Philosophy Has Taken Me To A Place That I Really Like.

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.

Anybody Tells You That Money Is The Root Of All Evil Doesn't Have Any.

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

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

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.

My Father Has Positional Vertigo, And If He Flies He Gets Really Dizzy, So He Has To Drive Out To California, Which He Does A Couple Times A Year. We Talk, But We E-mail Mostly.

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

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 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.

I Grew Up In A Home Environment Where I Wasn't Getting Esteem For Anything I Did.

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

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

You Know George M. Steinbrenner Iii Is The Center Of All Evil In The Universe.

Memories, All Those Little Experiences Make Up The Fabric Of Our Lives And On Balance, I Wouldn't Want To Erase Any Of Them, Tempting Though It May Be.

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.

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 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've Consciously Taken On Material That's A Bit Too Much For Me But Not An Overreach. The First Movie, Just About Performances. 'the Town,' I Learned How To Work Broader Material, Develop Tension, Direct Bigger Scenes, Action Sequences. 'argo,' I Experimented With Film Stock, Widened The Scope Of My Geography.

To Answer The Question, Though: I Didn't Always Want To Direct. I Just Liked The Idea Of It. If A Friend Was Making A Short And Needed Someone Who Knew Screen Direction, I Would Jump In. It Would Be Horrible, But It Led To A Short, Then Another, And Another. It Was Like Student Films.

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 Think We All Like To See Ourselves As Good Dads, But There's Also That Fear, 'oh, I Don't Want To Be Like My Father,' Or, 'i Hope My Kid Doesn't Turn Out Like Me.' You Know, I Have Those Feelings Too. So The Key Is Optimism.

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

It's Important For Me To Try My Hand At Philanthropy Because I Want To Leave Behind A Record Of Someone Who Did More Than Just Gobble Up Stuff For Themselves. I Realized That A Life Lived For Yourself Is Not Much Of A Life.

(i) Try New Things And Give Myself Permission To Fail And Experiment Because Only That Way Can You Get Really Successful.

I Have Definitely Noticed That I Care Less About Certain Things. Other Actors Are Like: "you Can't Do That", Or "you Can't Do This. This Will Position You In The Wrong Way." That's Not My Thing. And Obviously So, Because You Can See I Don't Craft Or Cultivate My Career.

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.

You Have To Look Also To The Media, Where You Have A Vast Majority Of The Loudest And Most Influential Political Voices In America Media From People Who Came From The Entertainment World.

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 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?

God Help Me If I Ever Do Another Movie With An Explosion In It. If You See Me In A Movie Where Stuff Is Exploding You'll Know I've Lost All My Money.

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

I'm Human, Just Like Anybody Else.

My Mother Taught Public School, Went To Harvard And Then Got Her Master's There And Taught Fifth And Sixth Grade In A Public School. My Dad Had A More Working-class Lifestyle. He Didn't Go To College. He Was An Auto Mechanic And A Bartender And A Janitor At Harvard.

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.

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.

Sure, I Suffered A Lot. But It's Not Like The End Of The World And It's Not Who I Am. I Lead Quite A Pleasant Life And I'm Able To Divorce A Perceived Reality From My Actual Experience Of Life.

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

They Say Money Can't Buy Happiness? Look At The Smile On My Face. Ear To Ear, Baby!

The Best Cure For A Hangover Is Something One Straight Man Can't Do For Another Straight Man.

You Don't Know What The Pattern Of Flour And Chicken Is Going To Be, But You Know You're Going To Get Some Good Fried Chicken.

On Playing Batman And His Daughter: If I Was Doing The Sequel To Frozen I Would Be A Hero. My Two Older Daughters Could Give A Sh-t About Batman And They've Now Passed That Affection Onto My Son. He's Always Like, 'papa, Can I Watch Frozen?' And I'm Like, 'no, Dude, It's Not On Again!'.

I Don't Go Back And Look At The Monitor Between Every Take; I Wait Until I Feel Like We Finally Got It Right: "let Me Stop And Look At That Last One On The Monitor."

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Directing Is Monumentally Complicated And It's A Function Of All The Time You Pay To It. I Think It Would Be Great To Do A Movie I'm Not In, I Could Just Eat Fritos And Just Say, 'yeah, It's Good!' Some Day.

If We Try To Define Our Own Moral Universe, There's A Price For That.

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 Kinda See My Current Position Like This: Here's Your Five Minutes In The Toy Store, So You Gotta Do All The Good Movies You Can Before 'chuck Woolery' Rings The Bell.

My Mother Always Accused Me Of Being In Love With The Sound Of My Own Voice. When We Went On Road Trips, She'd Be Like, 'stop Singing. Be Quiet, You're Talking Just To Hear Yourself Speak.' It Was Probably True. I Like To Ramble On, Which Is Probably Why I'm Well Suited To Interviews. You Know, There's No Other Forum Where You're Literally Supposed To Sit Down And Just Talk For Hours About Yourself. I Love It.

I Find Forgiveness To Be Really Healthy.

Every Single Director-actor I Talked To, From Warren Beatty To Clint Eastwood To George Clooney, Said The Biggest Mistake They Made Is Not Shooting Enough Footage Of Themselves.

There Is Currency To Celebrity, Or Celebrity Is A Currency... You Can Spend It In A Lot Of Ways, Or You Can Squander It. You Can Be Taxed, As Well. I Really Started Thinking Long And Hard About How To Use That Currency As Long As I Had It.

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.

The First Thing That I Really Understood Politically And Was Old Enough To Get Was The Failed Assassination Attempt On Reagan.

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

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.

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.

School Plays Are Fine. Theater In School Is Fine.

I Feel Like Fame Is Wasted On Me.

I'm Not The Type Of Guy Who Enjoys One-night Stands. It Leaves Me Feeling Very Empty And Cynical. It's Not Even Fun Sexually. I Need To Feel Something For The Woman And Entertain The Vain Hope That It May Lead To A Relationship.

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

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.

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.

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

Nobody Goes To A Movie And Watches The Script. There Is A Lot Of Other Stuff Going On.

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

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

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.

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

Sometimes The People We Meet Change Us Forever.

You Have To Pay People Real Money.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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

No Actor Forgets The Times He Couldn't Get A Job. I Think Everyone Doing This Operates From That Fear. You Don't Want That Momentum To Stop When You Get It

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

I'm A Writer. An Amateur Photographer. An Actor.

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.

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?

My Movies Are Unadorned, They're Not Particularly Fancy, I Think They're Kind Of Workmanlike In Some Ways, Focusing On The Writing And The Acting.

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.

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

We Wanted To Show People What It Was Like In One Of Those Neighbourhoods That They Would Never Have Access To, In Bars That They Would Be Too Scared To Go Into, And A World That They Would Never Get To See. All Of That Is Something Really Unusual And Rare And Kind Of Fascinating. And The Only Way To Do That And To Make It Really Worthwhile Was That It Had To Be Authentic. We Dedicated A Lot Of Time And Energy To Making That Right And Real. So We Found Basically The Worst Locations That We Could.

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.

[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.

I Like Roundtables Because You Can Talk More Directly To People. And You Also Can Get Kind Of A Vibe On What A Journalist's Take Is On Something, And Have A Conversation With Them More.

I'm Trying To Make People Feel Welcome And Feel Valued.

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.

It Wasn't My Childhood Fantasy To Work With Truffaut Or Be In Obscure Films. I Like Midnight Run Better Than I Like The Bicycle Thief. It Was Films Like Die Hard And Bladerunner That Made Me Want To Be An Actor.

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

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

Well I've Never Used That Phrase Before, But Yes She Is Bootylicious.

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

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

I Just Feel Like Sometimes I'm A Force To Be Dealt With. My Talents Are Sometimes Overused And Also Sometimes Underused. It's Not Easy Being Me.

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.

As An Actor, You Can Steer A Scene In Another Direction By Playing It A Little Differently. And Honestly? I Like Being An Actor, And I Want To Keep Having A Career.

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

The One Benefit Of Having Done All Kinds Of Movies As An Actor Is, You Learn The Pros And Cons Of Being Tempted To Do A Really Big Movie Because It Costs A Lot Of Money.

Persia Is Very Different From The Arab Middle East In Terms Of Architecture And Language. Even Though We Think Of Them As One Big Middle Eastern Area, In Truth, Persia's Quite Distinct.

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.

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.

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.

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