Cats are impossible to work with. They're just very difficult because you can't really train them. They're not really interested in whatever you want them to do. Dogs want to please you; cats only want to please themselves.

There's very few people - like Shakespeare - who, no matter what, were gonna do what they did. For the rest of us, there's a lot of events that have to happen in order for things to end up the way they are.

I really just like characters who you don't know where they stand for a long while. It's like people. You hang out with them for 10 years, and then all of a sudden they do something, and you say, 'Who are you?' That's more interesting. In life and on-screen.

I've been fortunate to be working mostly right out of school. Every year, there was a little something, and it kept the confidence going. It's about confidence and the belief.

When I moved to New York, I had to let my band know that I couldn't play anymore, and that was difficult to leave that behind.

A movie set is like a petri dish for neuroses, you know? It's just, like, egos and weird personalities and, more than anything, fear.

I was interested in the war part of 'Star Wars,' so I started reading about what it's like to go to war, what that does to you psychically, about the adrenaline and the rush.

The very first proper play I did was 'Godspell,' and I played the guitar for it, and I had a small part in a high school play. And before that, in sixth grade, I wrote a musical about Noah's ark.

You watch 'Whale Rider,' and I defy you to not get teary-eyed at the end there.

I had an audition where Josh Brolin was pelting me with his personality. I didn't get the part.

'Drive' is a genre piece, and a lot of times we don't get really sophisticated genre films.

I started playing guitar at, like, 12 or 13 and just rock bands mostly. I had a punk rock band and hard core bands and all that.

I've always liked acoustic blues. I liked Bob Dylan a lot.

A personal game-changer was when Ridley Scott cast me as King John, the King of England, for 'Robin Hood.'

I think it's the director's prerogative, not the studio's, to go back and reinvent a movie.

I've never been interested in celebrity.

I like films that take their time a little bit more and don't show you all of their cards right away, characters that are conflicted and contradicting and seem one way at first and then suddenly turn out to be something else.

I think that's why often people in creative fields can feel so alone is because there's a constant third eye, that constant watcher.

Being someone with Latin roots, so many doors are constantly closed for you because people put you in a category, and the thing I've always wanted to avoid is categorisation.

When I'm creating a character, I don't see it so much as playing someone else as just playing a specific part of myself under certain circumstances.

For me, with a character, you start with the shoes.

I feel like being an artist and being an activist are separate things; I know some people who feel very differently.

Every frame of a Coen brothers movie is filled with history and meaning, and the deeper you go, the deeper you get. That's why their movies stand up particularly well to repeated viewing and investigation.

I was in bands, but they were punk bands, and you plug in the guitars, you turn them up really loud, you've got four or five other people on stage with you, you've got some protection from when they throw lighters. You can always hide behind the lead singer or the bass player.

I had a great conversation with Tom Waits, of all people.

I think that when you decide to dedicate yourself to creative endeavors and surround yourself with people who are creative, you very quickly learn how hard it is to survive doing those kinds of things, not to mention make a living at them.

I wouldn't mind seeing The Smiths reform. That would be cool.

How do you play 'righteous'? Do you just kind of stand up straighter? What does that mean as an actor? You don't really play a quality.

Talent is very hot.

I don't know if they were all functioning, but I did play in a bunch of bands.

I guess 'Scarface' was the Cuban Al Pacino.

You can't try to be authentic. You either are or you aren't.

I played guitar and bass. I didn't do much vocals, although I did have one band where I was the lead singer. But that was when I was in college.

My dad was a huge Bob Dylan fan, so we listened to his music, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, and all that kind of stuff.

I come from a place where everything about me, even my body language, is saying: I mean you no harm. I smile, I laugh. Basic stuff for most people.

I'm very happy to have the heritage that I do, but I'm not wanting to be 'the Latino actor.' I just want to be 'an actor.'

I've done movies I'm very proud of, but there's always a sense of: 'Come see this shiny new car!' The question I hate the most is: 'Why should people see it?'

Jessica Lange was my biggest crush when I was a kid.

There's very few geniuses that come and revolutionize everything. For the rest of us that want to be artists and have something to say, it's a lot of work and a lot of luck.

I was always - maybe stupidly so - very confident.

I don't know why people are so obsessed with finding out stuff before the movie comes out. It's so much more fun to just go. I mean, I don't do that. I don't go looking for stuff that I'm interested in, you know, to try and find out pictures and what the movie's about. It's so much more fun to be surprised.

I was never much of a singer. I was terrible. It's embarrassing: I was trying to sound like everybody else. I went through a big Cure phase, so I was trying to do that kind of dramatic voice.

I get attached to things: I wear the same jeans for a year.

My dad was a doctor, but he was just always, like, going from hospital to hospital for some reason.

I've never been much of a guitarist. I mean, I've played forever, but I was always more of a rhythm kind of guy. I don't read music.

When I came up to New York to do a play, I passed by Julliard, and I was like, 'Oh I heard of this place.' I applied, and ended up getting in.

I'm so bored by business and money.

'Mojave' is a very wild, throwback film with these two dudes going after each other.

It'd be crazy to say just because an artist is not successful that means he's not talented. I don't think anybody really believes that, but sometimes it feels that way.

If you start trying to communicate ideas, I think you don't allow the audience to see themselves.