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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?'

-Nicolas Cage

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When I Was Eight,

Nicolas Cage

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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?'

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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.

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National Treasure

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 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 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.

I Want To Always Find New Ways Of Reinventing Myself.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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'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.

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

I've Always Had A Soft Spot For Comic Books. I Learned To Read From Them. The Words In Them Were So Interesting.

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

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

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

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.

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'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.

I Wasn't Any Good At Romnace. I Was A Total Nerd. My Thing Is, I Was Just Too Romantic. I Was The Romantic Goofball. I Wasn't Cynical Enough Or Harsh Enough. I Cared Too Much, So I Always Made A Fool Out Of Myself.

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.

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

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.

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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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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'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.

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

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

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

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

I Think I Jump Around More When I'm Alone.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Actors, Their Greatest Tool, Their Greatest Resource Is Imagination. You Can Take Things, Power Objects, You Can Recruit Your Dreams, You Can Access Your Memories And Get There. So The Idea Is Not To Act But To Just Be.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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 Think That The Best Characters Are The Ones Who Both Manage To Be Attractive And Repulsive At The Same Time.

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.

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