“I don't really like you, but I'm so good at acting as if I do that it's basically the same thing.”

“Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don't want to do?”

“You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them… I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can.”

“I think that I'm really, I was a reactionary, and now I don't do that any more. Same person, but I don't react. Before, I reacted. I didn't like the cameras, I split.”

“Don't think for a moment that I'm really like any of the characters I play. That's why it's called acting.”

“Apparently, most people love watching the same basic thing [actions shows on TV], as long as the details are different. But I'm just the opposite: if I'm going to sit and watch the same thing I saw the night before, I don't want it to be essentially the same – I want it to be exactly the same. Because the more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel.”

“I take very good care of myself. Growing up as a dancer, you know your body so well, you know what to do to overcome something. … I was raised really, really healthy, pretty much vegetarian and a very clean lifestyle, I don't smoke, I don't drink. I'm more addicted to the things that make me feel good — endorphins after working out.”

“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?"
Yes… the same age you will be if you don't.”

“I like today and perhaps a little future still, but the past is really something I'm not interested in. So, as far as I'm concerned, I like only the past of things and people I don't know. When I know, I don't care because I knew how it was.”

“I don't take notes; I don't outline, I don't do anything like that. I just flail away at the goddamn thing. I'm a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami. You can't sell it as caviar.”