My first day in grade school, I was plain scared. I left the comfort of my run-down house, which I loved, and went to school where it was cold, it smelled, the lighting was bad.

I'm just shocked at how blatantly shallow people are sometimes.

To make extra money, my parents would sell eggs and chickens. I was very little. I remember a chicken's head being chopped off with the chicken running around. I wasn't sure if my imagination was running away with me or if it really happened. It really happened.

Show business is, essentially, a fear-based industry.

I really believed that Batman had the potential to be one of the coolest guys in cinema.

I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but I very often like the way Europeans make movies. I think sometimes that don't they care about having to clean certain things.

I never knew anyone who was cloned, but I played one in 'Multiplicity.'

I was an altar boy, which I loved and am very proud of. It was strict, but also really nice.

From an art perspective, I don't know how you get better than 'Beetlejuice.' In terms of originality and a look, it's 100% unique.

I find there are a few places where I like to meditate more than in other places. There's a little Catholic church that I go to, and there's another temple I go to - there are certain places where I just feel more comfortable.

I don't know - sometimes I catch myself being dark, and it's annoying. I think, 'Get over it.' I bore myself. But sometimes, like everybody, I'm sure I am obsessive.

Over the years, I think, people - actors, writers, whatever - lose their frame of reference. Their frame of reference is based on somebody else who did this or did that. Performances. So it just becomes a reflection of what already works. Like a warm-up. And that's an invitation to be inauthentic.

People always make these generalized statements about Hollywood, and there's all kinds of people in Hollywood.

In terms of the parallels, I've never related less to a character than Riggan.

Weirdly, for someone who wanted to be funny, I didn't like a lot of attention.

I'm just shocked and thankful that I've gotten away with everything - experimenting here, trying at this, failing at that, being good in some things, not so good in others. It's kind of amazing that people are still sticking by me. When they come up to me in the street, I just want to write them all cheques.

I always think that I'm not going to be right for a movie or that there's someone else who can do it better.

I think one reason I really like women and like working with women is because of my sisters.

I took my play very seriously, and I got way, way lost in my play world.

I still really like newspapers. I'm gonna feel really sad when they go. Or not - maybe I'll be dead.

I choose not to be at the whim of others. I want to be at my own whim.

Colbert makes me crazy: he's so funny. Plus, he seems like an extraordinarily decent dude.

We had four guys in the family, so somebody was always hitting somebody or chasing somebody or getting mad or fighting or wrestling - that was just what you did. So when you're the youngest, it's good for you. You figure out real early how to get out of headlocks and holds.

I went through a lazy period.

To say directing was a long-stewing ambition doesn't cover it. If you cut me open, you'd see it.

There're only a few photographers I've ever felt really comfortable with.

I was never a huge 007 fan, but I sure liked Sean Connery. I'm sure Pierce Brosnan is good and has his moments, but I've not seen him; I've only seen bits and pieces on TV, so I can't really judge. Pierce looks very natural in the role.

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

In our family, my brothers and I shared toys. In other words, just because it was mine didn't mean my brothers and I didn't play with it.

'Birdman' is a very risky movie. I knew I wanted to do it just from watching Alejandro's other work. I told a friend, 'I would have done it based on 'Amores Perros' alone.'

Actors will say 'yes' to anything.

I'd get scripts and think: 'What's the point of this?'

No, I don't see many movies. I don't even see my own movies.

Technology, you know. I'm pretty horrible. I use it, but mostly I like to view it from afar. But I'm still fascinated by it.

I try to not be or associate with elitists.

Chris Guest movies are funny.

The first feature film I did, when I did 'Night Shift,' I improvised quite a bit because I would improvise at the audition, so sometimes I would return to the original lines, and then when I was on set, I would improvise even more.

I'll always stand by the first 'Batman'. Even for its imperfections, people will never know how hard that movie was to do. A lot of that still holds up.

Actors don't get to be well-known if they're horrible.

I worked at a PBS station called WQED in Pittsburgh.

I reached a point where I didn't think I was that great. I'm not being humble. I was looking at things and thinking: 'You're not really good in that'. I think I was becoming boring as well as bored. It was nobody's fault except mine - probably - and it might not even be my fault.

I was a really involved dad - not because I'm such a wonderful person. I like being a dad.

My work is distinct and definitive and specific, and hopefully it is so that every single character is different, and they are - but there's probably an underlying element that's me.

'Beetlejuice' was a romp, man. 'Beetlejuice' was fun. I've never had so much fun in my life.

Have I ever been to a party with a ton of famous people in it? Yes, several times, so I guess that's a Hollywood lifestyle.

If you're a dope like me, you get every sports channel you can get. I'm watching, you know, Netherlands soccer.

There are times when I consciously give the character something physical - a walk, the way he sits, how he talks, or his lack of physicality, which is like a physicality.

One thing my mother had a nose for was inauthenticity.

There are very few jobs where you're held up to public scrutiny.

I'm usually pretty good in front of a live audience. I usually like that.