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When You Start Out As An Actor, You Read A Script Thinking Of It At Its Best. But That's Not Usually The Case In General, And Usually What You Have To Do Is You Have To Read A Script And Think Of It At Its Worst. You Read It Going, "ok, How Bad Could This Be?" First And Foremost. You Cannot Make A Good Film Out Of A Bad Script. You Can Make A Bad Film Out Of A Good Script, But You Can't Make A Good Film Out Of A Bad Script.

-George Clooney

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When You Start Out

George Clooney

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When You Start Out As An Actor, You Read A Script Thinking Of It At Its Best. But That's Not Usually The Case In General, And Usually What You Have To Do Is You Have To Read A Script And Think Of It At Its Worst. You Read It Going, "ok, How Bad Could This Be?" First And Foremost. You Cannot Make A Good Film Out Of A Bad Script. You Can Make A Bad Film Out Of A Good Script, But You Can't Make A Good Film Out Of A Bad Script.

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I've Been Lucky Enough To Do A Few Films That Will Last Longer Than An Opening Weekend And Those Films Are The Ones I'm Proud Of.

If People See Me Having Dinner With A Beautiful Woman, They Immediately Believe That I'm Having A Love Affair With Her. Of Course That's Rubbish. I'm Not A Playboy!

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In The ’60s, When I Was Growing Up, One Of The Great Elements Of American Culture Was The Protest Song. There Were Songs About The Civil Rights Movement, The Women’s Rights Movement, The Antiwar Movement. It Wasn’t Just Bob Dylan, It Was Everybody At The Time.

I Don't Believe In Heaven And Hell. I Don't Know If I Believe In God. All I Know Is That As An Individual, I Won't Allow This Life - The Only Thing I Know To Exist - To Be Wasted.

I'm Not Completely Against Khakis. It's Just The Level That You Have To Wear Them. The Higher You Pull Them, Then More Excruciating It Is.

My Little Animal Secrets Must Remain My Little Animal Secrets. How I Do My Nails, That Is Really My Business.

The Patriot Act Is Certainly A Concern; All Of Those Things Are Dangerous. I Think More Important Than Me Preaching Is That We As A Nation Have To Have The Debate. I Don't Know What The Answers Are. I Just Know That If The Idea Is To Say Talking About It Makes You Unpatriotic, I've Got To Call Your Bluff On That.

Even Other Movies I Wasn't Involved With, I'd Watch Them Edit 'cause I Really Enjoy Watching Them Go Through Their Process. It's A Very Economical, Educational Process.

I Go On Youtube When Somebody Says To Look Something Up.

The Owner Of A Local Cannabis Café Told Reporters George Clooney Was No Stranger There.

I'm A Method Actor. I Spent Years Training For The Drinking And Carousing I Had To Do In This Film.

It Is Rather Astonishing That The United States Does Not Play Ball With The Icc, Considering Our Country Was The Beacon Of The Idea Of An International Criminal Court.

The Secret Of Directing Is Working With Really Good People.

I Think There Are A Lot Of Great Journalists Out There. I Don't Find Much Fault In The Journalist In General; I Think Everybody Would Like To Break A Good Story.

People Know Everything About Everybody Now.

It Is A Question In That Case Of Breaking Up One Piece Of Art, And Whether That Piece Of Art Can Be As Best As Possible Put Back Together. So It's An Argument To Say, Maybe That's One Of Those Instances, Like The Bust Of Nefertiti, I Think That Should Be Given Back [egyptian Piece Currently In Neues Museum In Berlin]. It's One Of Those Pieces You Look At And Think That Would Probably Be The Right Thing To Do.

I Certainly Direct With Confidence Even If I'm Not Confident. I Learned Early On As An Actor That Confidence Can Be Faked, And It's Not Always A Terrible Thing To Do. A Lot Of Times If People Feel You're Confident, Then They're Confident.

Newsman Are The Ones Who - Without Them We Don't Have A Civil Rights Movement, We Don't Have A Women's Movement, We Don't Have A Vietnam Movement.

If You're Going To Do A Romantic Comedy It Was About Housing It In Something That We Haven't Seen Before.

I Don't Know Of An Actor That The Coen Brothers Would Come To And Say, "hey, I've Got A Movie For You To Be In, If You Want To Do It," That Would Say, "no." That's The Truth.

I've Worked With Woody Allen Twice And He Was Like, "whatever You Want To Change, It's Up To You. If You Want To Change The Words, Make Them Your Own."

Directing Is Really Exciting. In The End, It's More Fun To Be The Painter Than The Paint.

My Grandparents Back In Kentucky Owned A Tobacco Farm. So To Make Money In The Summer We Could Cut And Chop And Top And House And Strip The Tobacco.

I Just Think There Are A Lot Of Celebrities Who Don't Feel That They Have A Voice. A Lot Of Actors Come From A Place Of Fear, And That's Just A General Statement About Actors. You're Terrified The Casting Director Won't Like You, You're Terrified The Producer Won't Like You, You're Terrified The Director Won't Like You, And On And On.

The Script For This Film Was Written 52 Years Ago By Edward R. Murrow, Who Taught Us Many Valuable Lessons About Responsibility And Always, Always Questioned Authority, Because Without It Authority Often Goes Unchecked.

Most Of The Films I've Done Haven't Done Particularly Well. I'm Surprised I'm Continuing To Work.

Acting Is One Element In A Film. Directing Is Sort Of The Painter Using All Of Those Elements - Sound And Music And Camera And Putting It All Together. And That Can Be Fun And Exciting. If You Fail, It's Incredibly Upsetting - Much More Upsetting Than When You're An Actor. But When You Succeed It's Incredibly, Incredibly Exciting, So I Like The Risk Of It All.

Sound And Music

The Actions Of President Trump Have Caused Alarm And Dismay Amongst Our Allies Abroad And Given Considerable Comfort To Our Enemies, And Whose Fault Is That? Not Really His. He Didn't Create This Situation Of Fear, He Merely Exploited It - And Rather Successfully.

I Enjoy Directing. I Don't Know Whether It's Improving Or Not, But It's Certainly Evolving In Different Directions.

Let's Face It: Bush Is Just Dim.

Over The Years, Over The History Of Our Country, Liberals Have Stood On Many Of The Right Sides Of The Issues.

The Truth Is My Development I Hope Is The Same Way As Everything, Which Is, I Succeed Some, I Fail Some, And I Keep Slugging Away At It. I Really Enjoy It. It's Fun.

All I Will Say Is We Get Wiser As We Get Older. And That What I Am Looking For In Life Is The Same As I Always Have; Happiness, Peacefulness And Joy. And That's All I'm Going To Say About That Because Otherwise I'd Get Into Trouble

I Did A Lot Of Terrible Tv Shows And Was Really Terrible In Them, And I've Done Terrible Films I Was Terrible In, But Nobody Really Noticed.

It Is Astonishing That Gay And Lesbian Americans Are Still Treated As Second-class Citizens. I Am Confident That, Very Soon, The Laws Of This Nation Will Reflect The Basic Truth That Gay And Lesbian People - Like All Human Beings - Are Born Equal In Dignity And Rights.

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The Directors Are Always Sharp. It's True.

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Hollywood Still Makes Things. We Still Export A Couple Billion Dollars' Worth Of Product Overseas. Original, New Product. Some People Might Not Agree That It's Original Or New, But Basically It Is.

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The Loneliest You Will Get Is In The Most Public Of Arenas: You Will Go To A Place And End Up In The Smallest Compartment Possible, Because It's A Distraction To Everybody, And You End Up Not Getting To Enjoy It Like Everyone Else.

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Ninety Percent Of Films Are Pretty Mediocre, But They Have A Built-in Audience And Open On 3,000 Screens.

Run For Office? No. I've Slept With Too Many Women, I've Done Too Many Drugs, And I've Been To Too Many Parties.

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Who Would Name Their Kid Jack With The Last Words 'off' At The End Of The Last Name? No Wonder That Guy Is Screwed Up.

So Far I've Done Two Films That Have Basically Been About Television Because I Know That World.

Bush, Sharon, Blair And Rice Are Names That History Will Damn.

It's Not That I Lead This Oblivious Life Where I Think I've Got Such A Great Personality That People Want To Spend Time With Me. If Someone Has A Poster Of You Or Asks For Your Autograph, Clearly You Can't Take Them Out On A Date. It's Not That Interesting If Someone Is Just Interested In You.

It's Incredibly Unfair. You Don't See A Lot Of 60-year-old Women With 20-year-old Men Onscreen.

I Have A Picture Of A Rainy Paris Street Scene Which I Bought When I Was 33 And On My First Trip To Paris. I Go Past It When I Go Upstairs Every Night And It Reminds Me Of That Trip And Makes Me Happy

If You're Famous, I Don't - For The Life Of Me - I Don't Understand Why Any Famous Person Would Ever Be On Twitter.

I'm So Lucky To Have Been Raised The Way I Have, Because My Parents Believed That Everyone Had The Right To Their Own Feelings, Opinions, And Existence; As Long As They Weren't Harming Others, You Had To Defend Those Rights.

The Idea That Every Time You Do A Film You're Supposed To Be Tortured Confuses Me. I Mean, Guys Who Say "oh, It's Really Tough, My Character Is Really Suffering" - Come On. For Us, Even In The Rotten Ones, We've Had A Good Time. I Don't Think You Have To Suffer.

If You Try Desperately To Hang On To Something That Used To Be A Success For You, It's Going To Go Away. You Have To Change.

The Government Itself Is Running Exactly Like The Sopranos And They Sit Back And They Make Deals. And They Say Okay, 'i'm Going Do This: France, You're Getting The Pipelines.'

Any Topical Subject, If It's Hollywood, Will Be A Couple Of Years Later Because You've Got To Write It, Produce It And Distribute It, So Automatically You're Never Going To Be Right On The Cutting Edge Of Stories.

I'm Not Quite Sure What The Santicity Of Marriage Is.

Everyone Makes Moral Choices That Better Themselves And Hurt Someone Else Along The Way - And Whether Or Not The Means Justify The Ends. And That, To Me, Is Universal.

I'm Interested In Making Films That Ask Questions And Don't Particularly Provide Answers.

I Was In A Bar And I Said To A Friend, 'you Know, We've Become Those 40-year-old Guys We Used To Look At And Say, 'isn't It Sad?'

I Enjoy Living In A Nice House And Having A Nice Life. So I Do Two Or Three Commercials Overseas A Year To Sort Of Fill In, Because They Pay Pretty Well.

But I'm Kind Of Comfortable With Getting Older Because It's Better Than The Other Option, Which Is Being Dead. So I'll Take Getting Older.

I Think The Reason Why A Lot Of Young People Are Such Screw Ups... Is Oftentimes They Didn't Have The Luxury I Had Of Forming Important Relationships And Opinions And Life Experiences Before Having Success.

Important Relationships

Im Like My Mother, I Stereotype. Its Faster.

You Have Only A Short Period Of Time In Your Life To Make Your Mark, And I'm There Now.

The Truth Of The Matter Is The Real Story Are The People Who Rise Above All Of This Incredible Cruelty. Otherwise That Cruelty Wins.

What I Learned Is That I Should Probably Read A Screenplay Every Once In A While Before I Said 'yes'. You Could Make Bad Film Out Of A Good Script, But You're Never Going To Make A Good Film Out Of A Bad Script.

I Don't Believe In Happy Endings But I Believe In Happy Journeys.

I'd Think,'in A Relationship, We Should Never Have His Kind Of Fight.' Then, Instead Of Figuring Out How To Make It Work, I Looked For A Way To Get Out Of It. The Truth Is, You Shouldn't Be Married If Your That Kind Of Person.

I Get Asked A Lot About Getting Into Politics. I Say, 'take A Look At Politics. You Tell Me What Seems Appealing About That.'

We Try To Make Films For People [that Are] The Films That We'd Like To See. They're Not Easy To Get Made. They're Hard To Get Made. You Have To Keep The Budget Low To Get Them Made. But At The End Of The Day, I Don't Really Worry About Competition, Because I Don't Really Think Of It That Way. I Don't Feel Like I'm In A Race With Anybody.

It's Very Easy For People To Be Critical Of President Obama's First Term, But Let's Face It, He Didn't Exactly Inherit The Country In The Best Shape.

I Want To Be The George Clooney Of Music.

See, The First Thing About Actors Is, You're Just Trying To Get A Job; And You Audition And Audition And You Finally Get Them. And You Still Consider Yourself An Auditioning Actor. I Auditioned For One Fine Day, I Wasn't Offered That. So You're Still In That 'hey, I'm Just Trying To Get A Job' Thing. Then, You Get To The Point Where, If You Decide To Do It, Then They'll Make The Film. That's A Different Kind Of Responsibility, And It Usually Takes A Couple Of Films To Catch Up. And Then You Have To Actually Pay Attention To The Kind Of Films That You're Making.

"is Art Worth Dying For?" Well I Don't Know A Single Inanimate Object That's Worth Dying For.

Inanimate Objects

If I Had Been With All The Women That I Was Said To Have Been With, I Wouldn't Have Had The Time To Shoot A Single Movie!

I Rarely Tell Anybody What They Should Be Doing With Their Life.

Getting Older Is Not Something That You're Not Much Concerned With.

The Timing For Directing Is Usually Because It Takes That Long To Develop A Piece And Then Do Pre-production And Then Post-production. It Takes At Least A Couple Of Years. I Prefer Directing To Doing Other Things. Directing And Writing Seem To Be Infinitely More Creative

My Life Isn't Focused On Results. My Life Is Really Focused On The Process Of Doing All The Things I'm Doing, From Work To Relationships To Friendships To Charitable Work.

Charitable Work

My Father Ran For Congress In 2004, And I Got A Sense That There Is No Way To Achieve Much Success Without A Certain Amount Of Compromise.

There Are People Who Like To Work In Chaos, And Some People Work Better Under That, And Create That Sort Of Chaos, But That Makes A Set Not Necessarily Very Fun. I Like To Work On Sets That Don't Have That.

I Would Vote For Johnny Depp. We Could Use A President That Could Swashbuckle.

I'm Only Two Years Older Than Brad Pitt, But I Look A Lot Older, Which Used To Greatly Frustrate Me. It Doesn't Anymore. I Don't Have To Fit Into That Category And Get Trounced By Tom Cruise And Brad.

I Doubt Anybody Gets Taken Seriously For Very Long. I'll Be On Some Reality Show In About Six Years Going, Hey, I Had A Great Year In 2006.

I Find Politics In Almost Every Country I Go To Be Incredibly Different And Incredibly Similar And I'm Never Surprised By Anything.

I'm Not Smart Enough And I Don't Know Enough About What's Going On.

When You First Start Out As An Actor, You're Just Looking For A Good Part. As Time Goes On, If You're Being Held Responsible For The Movies Themselves, You're Looking For A Good Script All Around.

I've Been My Most Happy And My Most Unhappy In Relationships. I Have Family And Friends And People I Care Very Much About. I've Got A Really, Really, Really Good Life.

Family And Friends

I Don't Think That Hollywood Will Have Much To Do With Changing Politics. Hollywood Usually Reflects Things.

Peace Is Not Just A Colored Ribbon. It's More Than A Wristband Or A T-shirt. It's Not Just A Donation Or A 5 K Race. It's Not Just A Folk Song, Or A White Dove. And Peace Is Certainly More Than A Celebrity Endorsement. Peace Is A Fulltime Job. It's Protecting Civilians, Overseeing Elections, And Disarming Ex-combatants. The Un Has Over 100,000 Peacekeepers On The Ground, In Places Others Can't Or Won't Go, Doing Things Others Can't Or Won't Do. Peace, Like War, Must Be Waged.

I Grew Up In The World Of Bad Television, On My Dad's Sets And Then As A Young Schmuck On Dating Shows And So On.

If We Dig Deep In Our History And Remember That We Are Not Descendants From Fearful People, We Proclaim Ourselves Indeed As We Are The Defenders Of Freedom Wherever It Continues To Exist In The World.

I Don't Tweet, I Don't Go On Facebook. I Think There's Too Much Information About All Of Us Out There. I'm Liking The Idea Of Privacy More And More.

Too Much Information

We Must Not Confuse Dissent With Disloyalty. We Must Not Walk In Fear Of One Another. We Must Not Be Driven By Fear Into An Age Of Unreason.

There's A Coffin In The Back Of The Church As The Wedding Is Going On ... Look, I'm A Romantic. I Like Marriage...in The Movies.

I'm The Least Metrosexual Cat You've Ever Met. I've Never Had My Fingernails Or Toenails Done, And I've Cut My Own Hair Longer Than Other People Have Cut My Hair.

There Are Quite A Few Things That The Devil Could Tempt Me With... I Could Be Tempted By Youth If I Was Allowed To Hold On To All The Wisdom That I've Gotten. In Everything, Not Just Sports. In Life. In Acting. I'd Be Tempted By Youth Only So I Could Continue Doing It A Little Longer.

I Was Watching 'up In The Air' And I Thought, 'jesus, Who's The Old Gray-haired Guy?' And It Was Me. I Never Wear Makeup For Movies And Now It's Starting To Show.

Even The Idea Of A Fart Makes Me Laugh. Saying The Word 'fart' Makes Me Laugh. I Have Ifart On My Phone. I Have Remote Whoopee Cushions. Farts. To Me, There's Nothing Funnier.

When You Go To Detroit You See A Town That Is Resilient, That's Just Fighting To Win Again, And There's An Energy To That. Just Watching A City Really Fighting To Get Back On Its Feet And Watching The Inner Strength Of A City Is Tremendous.

At Some Point In Our Lifetime, Gay Marriage Won't Be An Issue, And Everyone Who Stood Against This Civil Right Will Look As Outdated As George Wallace Standing On The School Steps Keeping James Hood From Entering The University Of Alabama Because He Was Black.

Hosting Is Work. It Means You Don't Get To Go Up To Your Room And Disappear And Take A Nap. Like Everybody Else Does After Lunch. I'm Talking About Hosting, Not Hosting A Dinner Party, But Hosting People Staying In Your Home.

I Find That As You Get Older, You Start To Simplify Things In General.

In 2003 I Was Saying, Where Are The Ties [between Iraq] And Al-qaida? Where Are The Ties To 9/11? I Knew It; Where The F**k Were These Democrats Who Said, 'we Were Misled'? That's The Kind Of Thing That Drives Me Crazy: 'we Were Misled.' F**k You, You Weren't Misled. You Were Afraid Of Being Called Unpatriotic.

I Like Owning Dirt. You Know, I Spent A Lot Of Time Broke When I Moved To California. So Deep In My Soul Is Still This Idea Of Being Un-employed. To Me, Owning Land Means You Could Sell It At Some Point And Have Money.

Without Question, I Wake Every Night Five Times.

I'm Not Going To Let Anyone Make It Seem Like Being Gay Is A Bad Thing.

Things Hurt Me Now. My Knees Hurt, My Back Hurts. But Your Head Still Thinks It's Twenty-three.

People Forget That I Was Married. I Love That, Will He Get Married? I Don't Talk About It Because I Don't Think About It. I Don't Ever Question Other Peoples' Versions Of How They Live Their Lives Or What They Do.

It Is Not Lost On Me That I'm Spending My Honeymoon At Comic Con.

I'm Certainly The Last Person To Give Advice On, Well, Anything.

Look, It's Very Easy To Sit Here Right Now With Some Films In The Bank That I Like And Think I Have A Shot And Feel Pretty Cocky. But, You Know, Three Years From Now, I Could Very Easily Be Saying, 'paper Or Plastic?'

I've Been Left For Someone...all Those Things...it Was Sometimes A Surprise, And Sometimes You Saw T Coming. The Most Painful Was When I Kept Trying To Get Someone Back. But We All Make Dumb Mistakes.

I Had A Tesla. I Was One Of The First Cats With A Tesla. But I'm Telling You, I've Been On The Side Of The Road A While In That Thing.

In The Time That We're Here Today, More Women And Children Will Die Violently In The Darfur Region Than In Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel Or Lebanon. So, After September 30, You Won't Need The Un - You Will Simply Need Men With Shovels And Bleached White Linen And Headstones.

I've Met My Bride-to-be In Italy And I Will Be Married In Italy Soon, In A Couple Of Weeks. In Venice Of All Places! In Closing, I Guess What I Would Like To Say Is To My Bride-to-be, Amal, That I Love You Very Much And I Can't Wait To Be Your Husband.

I Think It's The Most Responsible Thing You Can Do, To Have Kids. It's Not Something To Be Taken Lightly. I Don't Have That Gene That People Have To Replicate.

What You Learn After You Are 40 Is That It Is Just About Plugging Up Holes In The Boat. You Just Hope You Have Enough Corks To Plug Enough Of The Holes.

It's Not Ideal To Have Three Films Coming Out At Once.

Stage Actors Look Down On Movie Actors, Movie Actors Look Down On Tv Actors, And Tv Actors Look Down On... Mass Murderers.

Whatever Anybody Believes As Long As It Doesn't Hurt Anybody Else, It's Fair Enough, And Works, And I Think, Is Real, And Matters. I Don't Happen To Have Those Beliefs, As Much, You Know, I Don't Believe In Those Things.

When You Start Out As An Actor, You Read A Script Thinking Of It At Its Best. But That's Not Usually The Case In General, And Usually What You Have To Do Is You Have To Read A Script And Think Of It At Its Worst. You Read It Going, "ok, How Bad Could This Be?" First And Foremost. You Cannot Make A Good Film Out Of A Bad Script. You Can Make A Bad Film Out Of A Good Script, But You Can't Make A Good Film Out Of A Bad Script.

I Didn't Enjoy Working With Bill [murray]. We Fought A Lot... But I've Let Go Of Some Of The Anger And We Seem To Get Along Fine Now.

Peace Is A Fulltime Job. It's Protecting Civilians, Overseeing Elections, And Disarming Ex-combatants. Peace, Like War, Must Be Waged.

Having 'oscar Winner' On Your Tombstone Is A Great Thing.

'ides Of March' I Did For Scale - Scale As A Director, Scale As An Actor, Scale As A Writer.

Art Takes Different Forms... But It Represents Something That Is Basic In All Of Us-our History.

I'm The Son Of A Newsman, I Grew Up Around News, So I Can Understand The Issue, Which Is That Papers Are Losing Subscribers And They're Getting Less And Less Outlets... It's A Tricky Thing. You're Going To Have To Sell Papers. The Problem Is, There's So Little Reporting Anymore.

If You Don't Drink Coffee, I Am Suspicious Of Your Character And Will Not Invite You To My Italian Lake Home.

I Can't Give You 150 Takes. I Can't Even Give You 30 Different Ways Of Doing It! I Don't Have The Talent Or The Range For It.

I Played A Father A Few Times. You Don't Have To Shoot Heroin To Play A Heroin Addict ... I'm Not Running For President But I Could Play A Candidate. Most Of The Time, You Don't Really Have To Have Those Things In Your Life To Understand What They're Like.

The Funniest Thing Is That All The Things Every Director Goes Through, I Thought I Could Shortcut, But There Was No Getting Around Those Issues.

I Don't Remember Who Wins Awards [oscars]. I've Won A Few But What I Really Remember Are Movies. I Love Films, So I'm Not Concerned About Speculation About Winning Things Because I Really Enjoy Being In Films That Last Longer Than An Opening Weekend. That's My Goal In Life.

I Think People In Italy Live Their Lives Better Than We Do. It's An Older Country, And They've Learned To Celebrate Dinner And Lunch, Whereas We Sort Of Eat As Quickly As We Can To Get Through It.

My Father Taught Me About Having Principles And How To Treat People With Respect. My Aunt Also Taught Me How To Keep A Perspective On Everything That Happens To You. So You Learn To Be Humble And Not Take Your Success For Granted.

You've Got To Remember That Films Don't Lead The Way. People Think That Films Are Trying To Lead Society. Mostly, They're Reflecting The Moods And Thoughts That Are Going On In The Country Or Around The World.

I've Always Been An Optimist.

Republicans Are Good At Standing By Their Candidate.

The Only Failure Is Not To Try.

It's Fun To Slap People Around.

I Don't Like To Share My Personal Life... It Wouldn't Be Personal If I Shared It.

My Parents Were Disappointed I Didn't Finish College, And They Were Really Upset When I Went To Hollywood To Become An Actor. I Was A Big Disappointment To Them.

If You Want To Protect Yourself As An Actor, Always Work With Good People

Directors Are The Captains Of The Ship, And It's Your Job As The Lead Actor To Make Sure That The Rest Of The Cast Understand That By Doing Whatever He Says.

I've Certainly Done Some Turkeys Along The Way And Made Some Dumb Choices In My Career, Mostly Early On. I'm One Of The Lucky Ones Who Got To Make A Lot Of Mistakes Very Early When No One Was Paying Attention.

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