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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.

-George Clooney

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You've Got To Remember

George Clooney

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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.

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Never Get Behind Old People. Their Bodies Are Littered With Hidden Metal And They Never Seem To Appreciate How Little Time They Have Left

Do You Want The Truth Or The Politically Correct Version? The Truth Is That I Go Plastic, It's So Much Easier. And I Like To Put The Bags Over My Head At Night When I Sleep, Which I Think All The Kids At Home Should Try. Kidding!!

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 Am The Least Qualified Person To Comment On Anyone Playing The Role Of Batman Since I So Terribly Destroyed The Part.

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

I Had My Aunt Rosie, Who Was Famous And Then Not, So I Got A Lesson In Fame Early On. And I Understood How Little It Has To Do With You. And Also How You Could Use It.

Yes, I Slouch. My Mother Tells Me That.

The Last Real Movie Stars Were Probably Redford And Newman. And Things Were Different Then. There Wasn't This Amazing Amount Of Magazines And Information About Them.

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 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.

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 Think You Should Automatically Donate Your Organs Because That Would Turn The Balance Of Organ Donation In A Huge Way. I Would Donate Whatever Anybody Would Take, And I'd Probably Do The Cremation Bit.

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

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.

Venice Is The Prettiest City I've Ever Seen. It Looks Like A Disneyland Ride.

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

I Don't Care. Charlton Heston Is The Head Of The National Rifle Association. He Deserves Whatever Anyone Says About Him.

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.

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.

I Probably Wouldn't Be A Good Spokesman For An Electric Car, Because I'll Still Get On A Private Jet, And One Flight On A Private Jet Undoes All My Electric-car Good Deeds.

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

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?'

You Have To Remember That In The Microcosm Of Cincinnati, Ohio, Through Northern Kentucky, My Father Was A Big Star, Still Is. So That Made My Sister And Me Really Visible. Everybody Knew Us, Talked About Us.

Cincinnati Ohio

I Have A Real Interest In Pushing Some Of The Limits Of Things That Studios Don't Want To Make.

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

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

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.

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 Possible For Me To Make A Bad Movie Out Of A Good Script, But I Can't Make A Good Movie From A Bad Script.

The Hardest Thing Is Trying Not To Correct Everything On The Internet. It'd Be Night And Day - Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. So You Just Have To Say, All Right, I'll Take It, Bring It On.

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

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

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'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.

I'm Always Sort Of Optimistic About How Good We Are, As A Country, At Fixing Ourselves.

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.

Fame Can Be Very Dangerous, Because You Can Start To Enjoy That Part Of It. And That's Not The Good Part Of What I Do For A Living. The Good Part Is The Making Of Films. The Unpleasant Part Is The Fame Part, If You're Not Careful.

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

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.

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.

After Doing One Fine Day And Playing A Pediatrician On Er, I'll Never Have Kids. I'm Going To Have A Vasectomy.

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.

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

When You First Start Out, You Are Just Happy To Get A Job, Any Job. And As Time Goes On, Either You Move Forward Or Screech To A Halt.

I Don't Know If Winning At Any Cost Is Wrong Or Not. There Are Times I've Thought That The End Justified The Means.

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!

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.

You Get Better As An Actor Over Time If You're Growing. Like Singers.

Love Trumps Hate. Courage Loves Fear. Right Always Trumps Wrong.

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

Honestly, As You Can Imagine, It Really Isn't All That Fun Directing Yourself, Running Back And Forth To The Monitors To See If You're Terrible Or Not.

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

I Don't Mind What They Say As Long As They're Not Being Mean.

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

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.

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

I'm The Flavor Of The Month.

Flavor Of The Month

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.

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 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.

My Biggest Fear Is Doing The Same Things 10 Years From Now. That Would Be A Failure. It's Something You Have To Constantly Reassess, And Asking Yourself What You Are Going To Do Next Makes It A Good, Long Full Journey.

An Acting Career Usually Has About A Shelf Life Of Ten Years Before People Get Sick Of Seeing You. It's A Good Thing To Have A Job To Fall Back On And I Really Do Enjoy Directing.

I've Walked With Very Famous People Down Red Carpets Over To The Crowd Of Thousands Of People, And You'll Reach Out To Shake Their Hand And They've Got A Camera In Their Hand. And They Don't Even Get Their Hand Out, Because They're Recording The Whole Time.

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.

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.

It's Not That Your Back Hurts, .. You Get These Horrible, Ice Cream Brain-freeze Headaches. So I Would Go In On The Weekends And Get These Things Called Blood Patches, Where They'd Shoot Blood Into Your Spine. It Was Like Running A Marathon To Get It Done.

I Do Happen To Have A Good Life... But I Also Like To Work. I Feel Like I Got The Brass Ring And I Got Very Lucky In This.

There's Ten Of Us, We've Been Best Friends For Thirty Years. Ten Guys. And Their Wives, And Their Kids, Are All Family Now. I'm Not Big On Keeping Up On The Phone, None Of Us Are. Some Guys I Won't Talk To For Two Months And Then You Pick Up The Phone And Hear, "so, Anyway." There's No Guilt Or Where Have You Been? Or What's Been Going On? Or Why Haven't We Talked? There's An Ease To It.

Over The Course Of My Career, I've Had The Great Fortune Of Working With Some Incredible Filmmakers Who Have Protected Me And Inspired Me And Taught Me What An Honor It Is To Work In Film.

I'm Really White Trash.

[on Charity] I Try To Pick Subjects That I Can Learn About And Then Focus On And Then Do As Much As I Can. If You Have A Tremendous Amount Of Heat From The Spotlight, Then You're Able To Shine A Little Bit More Of Your Light In A Different Direction. It's Just Deflecting. My Dad Calls It A Celebrity Credit Card That You Can Cash In. I Think If You're In This Position You Should Do It.

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.

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

I Grew Up At A Time Where I Think Most People Had A Social And Political Conscience. Some Of The Biggest Changes In Our Country's Political History Happened At The Time I Was Growing Up, So I Was Raised To Be A Part Of Those Things And To Participate And I Will Continue To Do That As Much As I Can.

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.

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

I Bought A Painting In Madrid On My First Trip There Too And A Lot Of People Say, 'well It's Not The Greatest Painting' And I Say, 'it Is To Me.' Ok, You Can Look At A Beautiful Painting And Say, 'that's Beautiful' But To Me, It Feels Warmer To Fill My Home With Pictures Of Friends And Family And Paintings Of Places I've Gone. That's What I Want To Come Home To.

We're Always Going To Be A Society That's Going To Slow Down And Look At The Wreck On The Side If The Road If There Is One. We're Always Going To Do That Because It's Still Fascinating And It's Human Nature.

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

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

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

The Best Advice I Got From My Aunt, The Great Singer Rosemary Clooney, And From My Dad, Who Was A Game Show Host And News Anchor, Was: Don't Wake Up At Seventy Years Old Sighing Over What You Should Have Tried. Just Do It, Be Willing To Fail, And At Least You Gave It A Shot. That's Echoed For Me All Through The Last Few Years.

Directing Is Much More Satisfying To Me Than Acting.

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.

Growing Old On Screen Is Not For The Faint Of Heart.

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

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?'

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.

You Learn From The Mistakes You Make And From The Mistakes Other People Make. The Truth Is, You Don't Learn From Success; You Learn From Failure.

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.

Anyone Would Be Lying If They Said They Didn't Get Lonely At Times.

I Love Children And I Get Along With Them Great. It's Just That I Believe If You're Going To Be A Parent, There Has To Be Something Inside You That Says, 'i Want A Family.' I Don't Feel That Sense Of Urgency.

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

I Enjoy Going On Motorcycle Trips And Stopping In Small Towns And Enjoying Drinks With The Locals.

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.

Politicians Have A Tremendous Amount Of Ego To Be Able To Do It. It's Very Hard When The Product Your Selling To An Entire Country Is Yourself And You're Just Selling The Hell Out Of It All The Time.

We're Picking On People We Can Beat.

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.

As You Get Older And Ease Your Way Into Being A Character Actor You Have To Be Comfortable With Where You Are In Life And Career, And I'm Very Comfortable With What I'm Doing - Working On Projects I'm Proud Of.

I've Had Some Success At Writing And Directing, And I Like It. It's Infinitely More Creative Than Just Acting, And I Have Things I Want To Say And Do.

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

Shutting Down The Government Is Not How You Make Government Work.

Government Work

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.

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.

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.

The Problem Is, We Elected A Manager And We Need A Leader. Let's Face It: Bush Is Just Dim.

I Don't Sleep Much. Five To Six, I'd Say. You Could Argue That People, As They Get Older, Sleep Less - Probably Because They're Afraid Of Dying At Some Point. I Know My Parents Don't Sleep Much. I Know That I Used To Be Able To Sleep Until Noon When I Was Younger. I Couldn't Fathom Staying In Bed Until Ten Now. I Wouldn't Know What To Do Unless There's A Football Game On.

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

It's Hard To Find Actors That Don't Feel Contemporary When You Put Them In A Period Piece.

On Christmas Morning, Before We Could Open Our Christmas Presents, We Would Go To This Stranger's Home And Bring Them Presents. I Remember Helping Clean The House Up And Putting Up A Tree. My Father Believed That You Have A Responsibility To Look After Everyone Else.

The Simple Truth Is That Everyone Has An Opinion, Everyone Has The Right To Voice It, And They Should If They Want To.

You Can't Beat Your Enemy Anymore Through Wars; Instead You Create An Entire Generation Of People Revenge-seeking. [...] Our Opponents Are Going To Resort To Car Bombs And Suicide Attacks Because They Have No Other Way To Win. I Believe (rumsfeld) Thinks This Is A War That Can Be Won, But There Is No Such Thing Anymore. We Can't Beat Anyone Anymore.

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.

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.

I Resolve Not To Drink Liquids Before Donning The Bat-suit.

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.

I'm Not Out Trying To Prove Anything. I'm Sort Of Finished With That, So I Get To Play In Other Sandboxes And Try And Figure Out What I Like And I'm Interested In.

There's No Connection Between Al-qaeda And Iraq.

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'm The Old-fashioned Type Who Prefers To Meet A Woman In A More Normal Setting. I Don't Like To Feel That I'm Being Hunted Down. I've Always Liked To Do My Own Hunting When It Comes To Meeting Women.

The Only Failure Is Not To Try.

I Find That It's A Very Odd Thing To Think Of Competition When You're Talking About What I Still Think Of As Art. I Don't Think Of Competing With Actors Or Filmmakers At All. You Do Compete, In A Way, At The Box Office, But We're Far Enough Apart When Both Films Are Coming Out That I'm Not Concerned With That Either.

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.

The Directors Are Always Sharp. It's True.

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. Why On God’s Green Earth Would You Be On Twitter? Because First Of All, The Worst Thing You Can Do Is Make Yourself More Available, Right?

As Time Goes On And You Become More Comfortable In Your Career Path, And Things Are Starting To Make Sense, And It's Not Just About Work, You Find That You're Able To Focus On Other Things And Other People.

If You’re In The Room, You've Grabbed The Brass Ring. You Are All Winners.

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.

When You're Young, You Tend To Believe What People Tell You, And That's Dangerous. As You Get Older, You Learn That You're Never As Good Or As Bad As They Say You Are. If You Understand This, You Win.

I Watch 'batman & Robin' From Time To Time. It's The Worst Movie I Ever Made, So It's A Good Lesson In Humility.

George Clooney Likes To Talk About Himself In The Third Person Mostly. He's Always Enjoyed It. Listen, I Don't Like To Think In Those Terms, Where You Just Have To Completely Separate Yourself One From The Other.

My Father Was And Is A Great Journalist. Thirty Years Ago, I Was Studying Broadcasting In College, And The Problem Was I Wasn't Nearly As Good As My Father. I Wasn't As Quick Or As Smart As My Old Man, And I Realized It Would Be A Long Time Before I Was Ever Going To Be, And I Decided To Do Something Else.

I Just Found Out About 10 Days Ago That I Must Live 300 Or 400 Yards From Britney Spears... So Now I Have To Move.

I'm A Liberal. I'm Confused When That Became A Bad Word...

I Want To Be The George Clooney Of Music.

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

Let's Face It: Bush Is Just Dim.

I Love My Grey Hair And Wrinkles. I Love The Fact That My Face Has More Of An Edge And More Character Than It Did When I Was In My 20s And 30s. No Botox For Me.

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 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.

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

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.'

For Me The Definition Of A Patriot Is Someone Who Is Willing To Constantly Question The Government; That’s What Separates Us From Other Countries.

When You See Hitler Burning Paintings By Salvador Dali And Picasso He's Telling You That This Time Period And These Men And This Culture Didn't Exist, And I've Seen That Happen In Other Countries, Sudan For Instance, It's Not Enough To Kill Them You Have To Destroy All Of Their Markings That They Left That Was Their History.

If We Turn Our Heads And Look Away And Hope That It Will All Disappear Then They Will - All Of Them, An Entire Generation Of People. And We Will Have Only History Left To Judge Us.

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

Inanimate Objects

I Bought A Piano Once Because I Had The Dream Of Playing As Time Goes By As Some Girl's Leaning On It Drinking A Martini. Great Image. But None Of It Worked Out. I Can't Even Play Chopsticks. But I've Got A Nice Piano At My House!

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

I've Been Working With Pat Robertson On Africa Debt-relief, And We Disagree On Virtually Everything Except Certain Very Specific, Inalienable Rights, And The Truth Is That Morality And Patriotism Come In All Shapes And Sizes.

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.

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

America Can't Beat Anyone Anymore.

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.

Growing Up During The Cold War Period, I Always Found That, Although We Always Thought That The World Would End In Some Sort Of Nuclear Holocaust, At Some Point, Everybody Was Pretty Hopeful.

Anytime There's An Actual Grassroots Movement That Isn't Funded By People Trying To Create A Grassroots Movement, I Find That Interesting.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The People I've Respected Most In The Industry Over The Years - Paul Newman, For Instance. I Just Loved The Way He Handled Growing Old On-screen. It's Understanding That You're Now Basically A Character Actor.

I Don't Believe In Happy Endings, But I Do Believe In Happy Travels, Because Ultimately, You Die At A Very Young Age, Or You Live Long Enough To Watch Your Friends Die. It's A Mean Thing, Life.

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

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

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.

People Know Everything About Everybody Now.

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.

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

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 Know What My Limitations Are As An Actor, But My Strength Is Putting Myself Into A Well-written Part. When I Get In Trouble Is When I Have To Fix It, Or When I Have To Carry It On Personality.

Failures Are Infinitely More Instructive Than Successes.

What I Try To Do Is Make Sure That The Directors I'm Working With Are On The Same Page And Want To Do The Same Kind Of Films. You Can Really Protect Yourself As An Actor If You Work With Really Good People. It Can Hide A Lot Of Flaws Along The Way.

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

Both Of My Grandparents Died Of Lung Cancer. So I Got Quite A Lesson In The Payback Later In Life Of Smoking, And If You Keep It Up How Bad It Can Be.

The Rehearsal Process In General Is About Trusting One Another.

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!

Life’s Better With Company. Everybody Needs A Co-pilot.

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

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.

Actors Tend To Get In Their Own Way, A Lot. A Lot Of Times You Will Do Things That Will Screw Up Your Audition Process. I Was Very Bad At Auditioning, And I Always Went In To It Saying ‘god I Hope I Don’t Screw This Up.’ But At The Same Time, The Directors Are Saying, ‘god, I Hope This Person Is The Savior.’ You Have To Remember Is That The Worst Thing That Could Happen Is You Don’t Get The Job You Don’t Already Have.

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 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.

In The United States 95% Of The People Who Win Elections Have The Most Money. That's It. So, Money Is A Big Part Of Elections. But That Happens All The Time.

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.

You Never Really Learn Much From Hearing Yourself Talk.

There Are Some Scenes That You Have To Lose In Order To Win Something At The End. A Good Director Will Keep Pointing You That Way, But It Is Also Your Job As An Actor To Understand That There Are Scenes That You Do, Particularly When You Are The Lead, Where Other People Get To Come In And Steal And You Have To Let Them. I Understand That But A Good Director Always Reminds You Where Those Moments Are.

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.

I Had To Stop Going To Auditions Thinking, 'oh, I Hope They Like Me.' I Had To Go In Thinking I Was The Answer To Their Problem.

If You Think Back , The Academy Was Doing A Better Job. Think About How Many More African Americans Were Nominated.we Need To Get Better At This. We Used To Be Better At It.

African American

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

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.

I Was Very Lucky To Get Well Known Much Later In Life. You Need To Have Flopped Quite A Few Times To Get A Sense Of How Little Any Of It Has To Do With You.

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.

Oceans Is About Glamour. I Can't Go Looking Like A Slob Can I?

Im Like My Mother, I Stereotype. Its Faster.

After A While, You Just Want Transportation, And Things Like Cool Cars Or Motorcycles Are All About Getting Attention. I Get All The Attention I Could Ever Need, So I Kind Of Like Being In A Minivan And People Not Paying So Much Attention To Me.

The Secret Of Directing Is Working With Really Good People.

The First Thing That I Learned - And I Understood It At A Really Young Age - Was That I Could Get A Laugh. Really Early. Because My Mother And Father Are Funny.

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.

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Richard Hofstadter

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