I think that's what 'Stranger Things' does, it opens you up - it has a real beating heart to it.

In this business, certainly it's a lot crazier for women than it is for men, but there's such a thing where there's a lot of judgment on the way you look and on your body.

People are three-dimensional. They're not good or bad. They're not righteous or unrighteous. They are a million different things.

I have one thing to say about the mental asylum. I've romanticized two things in my life, and both have fallen short. One is being in a mental asylum. Really, really not as fun as you think it is.

I'm just trying to give the best human expression that I can to any particular genre, which could be comedy, could be drama, could be horror, could be thriller.

There are certain societal laws that are just accepted, things that are arbitrary. I think the fun thing about psychotics is that they question that. It can be very freeing... like, my ego or my individuality trumps society's law.

One of the things about having played a lot of villains is... I don't have the same experience of someone who maybe has been a leading man since they were 22 and therefore looks at certain things in a character to romanticize themselves. I actually very much embrace the bad stuff.

I want to bring love handles and eating sandwiches back.

I'm terrified of the unknown, which is a driving force for me. I like this idea that the things that terrify us also draw us in.

People who are deep thinkers, who have sort of a weird way of looking at the universe, are wildly attractive to me.

One of the things I've been interested in my whole career is exploring masculinity and what it means to be a man. The sensitivity of a man, but also the violence and power that goes along with it.

When you push and pull heavy things, your body thinks it's going to die, and so it's like, 'I better get bigger, in case we do that tomorrow.'

If you want to really get in shape and get strong, there's these things called 'sleds.' You take a weighted sled, and you just push it across the floor, and then you drag it back. And, basically, if you do that for 20 minutes a day, you'll look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you put enough weight on it, it's the hardest thing in the world.

What I'm dealing with in 'Hellboy' is a lot different, bigger in a certain way. It's very Shakespearean. It's demons and witches and stuff like that. But it has a similar core to a dude who's trapped in horrible circumstances who's just trying to be a good guy.

I was diagnosed as bipolar.

With 'Deadpool' and 'Logan,' they are trying to do different things.

I did this movie, 'A Walk Among the Tombstones' - I truly play a horrible, horrible individual in that - and I would occasionally go to the theater and watch what people's responses were, and they would laugh. He makes jokes, and people would respond to him in a human way. Then I've really done my job if I've humanized a really horrible person.

With a lot of projects, you never know if it's going to be executed properly. And also, you never know if people are going to respond to it.

I did a movie with Jamie Foxx that was kind of action, and, you know, Jim Hopper's a little bit action; he does throw a good punch.

One of my impulses in acting has always to make people feel less alone.

I don't even know what memes are, I'm, like, an old person, so I don't really know what a meme is.

When that Twitter account came out, @HopperDancingTo, and they put me to all these different songs, I thought that's pretty much one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I watched that for a couple hours straight, him dancing to George Michael and all these stupid songs.

I'm always fascinated emotionally in the moment that someone pulls a gun, even a cop. That action - I don't know that I, personally, as a human being, could do it.

What makes someone sexy in my mind is who they are. It's not necessarily how they look.

All I've ever wanted to do as an actor was move people.

That's all I've ever wanted to do is to feel like what you're doing moves someone, and that ultimately, maybe they can make a different choice in their life that may be better, right?

I don't want to do procedural: I want to do longform.

The one thing I can say about the 'Stranger Things' cast that I don't often feel when I do television and movies is that every single actor on that show that I've interacted with is a good-hearted person.

As much as I can, I like to curate the information the people know personally about me.

I try to keep it separate as I can, but also, I'm not going to live my life in complete privacy. If I'm feeling something, I'm going to live my life. I will not hide things.

People are more complicated than you give them credit for.

Life really is too short.

I can like Michael Keaton's Batman, and I can like Christian Bale's Batman.

I'm a bit of a strange human being - I love to work. I love art. I love self-expression.

I actually went back and watched all of 'True Detective''s Season One again, which I think is a true masterpiece.

If you are misunderstood, I want you to know that I feel the same way.

It's, like, weird to watch a human being develop.

I would like to see sexiness sort of embodied in people's real bodies, as opposed to those bodies that are just full of narcissism.

If acting has any meaning, it is so that we can have greater empathy for other people.

When I got to be, like, in high school and stuff, I sort of was drawn to that feeling of feeling uncomfortable in my skin and being confused by human beings, like, just constantly confused.

I'm very interested in the drama of the leading man being someone who is incapable, becoming capable.

I love all kinds of stuff. I really am so eclectic in my taste. I love film noir, I love thrillers, and I love big blockbuster popcorn cinema stuff, but I like it when it's twinged with a bit more social consciousness.

I think I'm very hard on myself. I think I've always been very hard on myself since I was a kid.

I was very resistant to my intellectualism for a while. I do start with an intellectual idea for a character. A lot of the times, it'll be the opposite of what I feel like is on the page, or it'll be just an idea that I read in a psychology textbook or in a philosophy book. I'll apply something to it that I can start to tinker with.

My natural state is a state of an explorer - a performer, but someone who wants to explore their experience and reflect on their experience more than just lie on the beach. Even when I go on vacations, I get stressed out if I'm at the beach for, like, two days. I'm like, 'Can't we do something? I can't just sit there.'

The more I work in the film business, the more I see that those guys, the directors, have the most fun on set.

I love to watch human beings figuring out their limitations.

Never take advice, including this.

I'm a big fan of public trust.