Changes are not unusual – I mean, most movies, when they release them, they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world.

Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won’t last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don’t realise that.

I wouldn’t put myself forward to do a film like ‚Changeling‘ if I thought I couldn’t pull people into a story because of all the other ways people see me.

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and in movies. I grew up believing this dream.

The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

It is really funny when people say you’d be obvious for a great villain.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

It’s a frustrating game because the situations so drastically change at different times over the course of the week, the game, the season. It feels like brain surgery at times.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

See things from the boy’s point of view.

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren’t. I don’t know if its the way you say it, or how you look.

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.

People like to build their own story about my life. I don’t know if it makes them feel better, or if it makes it okay for them to not like me, but the last thing I grew up as was rich.

The movies are the only business where you can go out front and applaud yourself.

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

I don’t want people to think of me as sexy.

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

Our problem right now is that we’re so specialized that if the lights go out, there are a huge number of people who are not going to know what to do. But within every dystopia there’s a little utopia.

All the screen cowboys behaved like real gentlemen. They didn’t drink, they didn’t smoke. When they knocked the bad guy down, they always stood with their fists up, waiting for the heavy to get back on his feet. I decided I was going to drag the bad guy to his feet and keep hitting him.

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don’t understand.

Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.

Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called ‚walking.‘

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

I am a giant proponent of giant screens. But I accept the fact that most of my movies are going to be seen on phones.

What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.

Players who are not from the U.K. have to get used to the winds. I have to adapt my style as a result as well. Often, you are forced to keep things simple.

Most people wouldn’t know music if it came up and bit them on the ass.

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

We tend to mistake music for the physical object.

I’m not someone who sits at home and doesn’t like to go out, doesn’t like to watch movies. I like to live my life.

If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.

In my experience, many people confuse being cowardly with being nice.

A man’s only as old as the woman he feels.

Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories – and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories.

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.

I feel like everything we do comes down to how it looks. Even no branding is branding. For example, you had no face or image to put to my music at first. That was branding.

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

More than anything else, I want the folks back at home to think right of me.

Some men do think I’m a psycho bunny-boiler.

I think the perception of peace is what distracts most people from really having it.

In too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. Through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper, I’m personally committed to changing both perception and reality.

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

Life guided me to being a bodyguard, protecting people, then in the movies, so I’m happy with everything because basically all I ever wanted to do was be a good son and take care of my mother.

I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

When I was 8 years old, I saw ‚Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of there and was so inspired. I loved the movie, and I knew I wanted to be that guy.

It’s simple: You get a part. You play a part. You play it well. You do your work and you go home. And what is wonderful about movies is that once they’re done, they belong to the people. Once you make it, it’s what they see. That’s where my head is at.

No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it’s this world or nothing. That’s a very powerful perception.

Science is nothing but perception.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.