"What makes divorce happen is that you can't be in the same space any more, for whatever reason - but the love stays. And that's the killer. That's where the vehemence and anger and rage comes from."

"It's true what they say about failure. You don't learn from success."

"I don't like the fact that I have to get older so fast, but I like the fact that I'm aging so well."

"You spend so much of your life basing yourself on what you think other people think of you. Then you realise that maybe one of the purposes of life is not to care."

"This is your life. Now go make it the one you've always wanted."

"Depressed, anxious, sad, frightened? Yes. But I've never been bored."

"I think there's always going to be some kind of bigotry or some kind of racism. There has to be, because people can't feel that they have any hero qualities unless there's someone beneath them."

"Well this is aptly called a junket, for both of us. I have never been to a house of prostitution, but I understand that you get in more than seven minutes."

"Well first of all, it's hard to shoot a movie and break for a long time and then come back and do, in a sense, one of the biggest scenes that each character had."

"Somehow I think it was declared very early on that I was the - if not the black sheep of the family, not a very good student."

"I think the most insulting thing you can do to a director is to challenge when he or she is satisfied with your interpretation."

"I did some writing and bought a book, and have been working on that as a film to act and direct in."

"And that's another reason to make this movie: We can put plays on film now, at a relatively small cost, and they will reach an audience they would never have reached otherwise."

"If you have this enormous talent, it's got you by the balls, it's a demon. You can't be a family man and a husband and a caring person and be that animal. Dickens wasn't that nice a guy."

"One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed."

"In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win."

"For me as an American, the most painful aspect of this is that I believe that that administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that's reprehensible."

"Life stinks, but that doesn't mean you don't enjoy it."

"I feel cheated never being able to know what it's like to get pregnant, carry a child and breast feed."

"I decided to become an actor because I was failing in school and I needed the credits."

"Myth is supposed to bring us together, but fantasy alienates us."

"If there is no direct threat why are we invading?"

"Blame is for God and small children."

"I did a movie called Marathon Man and it was one of my best memories."

"There's a rebirth that goes on with us continuously as human beings. I don't understand, personally, how you can be bored. I can understand how you can be depressed, but I just don't understand boredom."

"I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation."

"I believe - though I may be wrong, because I'm no expert - that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil."

"A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution."

"The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk."

"I wanted to be a jazz pianist, but I wasn't good enough. I got into city college because I didn't have the grades to get into university. I took acting because it was a way to get three credits. I just needed three credits and my friend told me to take acting because it was like gym - nobody fails you. I took it and that's literally how I got involved in acting."

"Acting didn't solve much! If it did, I would have ended up much less crazy than I am today, but I'm not. At least for me, acting is a relief - a relief to be able to admit certain things about myself and disguise in my work, in my characters."

"The plight of the actor, even if he's a star, is the plight of the women's movement. They're saying the same thing to us: get into bed, give me a good time, then give me something to eat, go get the laundry, be a good girl."

"My wife always says that I will be stuck with this forever: I am the difficult one. With Jack Nicholson they always said it was drugs. Warren Beatty is supposed to have screwed everything that jumped off the curve. I'll tell you, in reality a few of us had as many girls as Warren."

"Usually, those people don't even like actors and they can't wait until they get in the cutting room. They kind of break down in categories: directors who like to be surprised and some of them abhor being surprised. As far as directing, we all direct when we're acting in movies... every single one of us."

"Money is another pressure. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that there's a certain luxury in having no money. I spent ten years in New York not having it, not worrying about it. Suddenly you have it, then you worry, where is it going? Am I doing the right thing with it?"

"People like Johnny Depp are an exception. He is the current model of what an actor should be. His body of work speaks volumes. He was so under-rated for so long, but he will have longevity - and it is such a gratifying thrill to see he is finally getting the recognition he deserves."

"In terms of the stars, the only ones I cast were Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins. I was in Los Angeles working and a lot of this took place on the telephone. I'd met Maggie [Smith] once and I'd come back-stage, which I'm usually loathe to do because as an actor you don't want people coming back because you want to get home [laughs]."

"So when I told my parents I wanted to go into acting because I was flunking out of my first year of junior college, they were relieved that I had picked something other than joining the army. But I can't imagine how they had high hopes for me."

"We all believe what we read. I read how Tom Cruise and I were two big egos holding up shooting. I know that isn't true - but if I wasn't making a movie with him and I just picked up the paper, I'd believe it. That's interesting, isn't it?"