I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead.

If the critics are right that I’ve made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.

I don’t ever make moves under pressure.

I was ashamed to admit I was hipped to the idea of acting. That’s why I started in with the props.

I’ve done films where we don’t rehearse, and I’ve done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.

The wise use of your freedom to make your own decisions is crucial to your spiritual growth, now and for eternity.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

I don’t know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

It’s much more fun to play something you’re nothing like than what you are… It’s much easier to hide yourself in a character.

Eight, as you know, is not a good number for a multi-member court.

Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

One reason I don’t want to play in England again is because we don’t have any personalities.

One of the more difficult tasks for me as president was to decide on the issue of confirming capital punishment awarded by courts… to my surprise… almost all cases which were pending had a social and economic bias.

I always wanted to do things right and represent myself as somebody that took the art serious and someone that took the business serious also, so I had time to weigh the options and figure it out and do my best to create the situation that was ideal.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

The goal for me is always to have the opportunity to work in different genres. This is a great and exciting time in my career, where I can have the opportunity to work in different genres, and also I recognize there’s not a lot of actors who have that opportunity and I’m grateful for it.

As I followed my dream – stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired – I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.

I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

People want to go out and travel around and meet cool people. I could just go live in Vermont, but is that what I really want?

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

I was offered a job on Wall Street by my uncle. But I wanted to get out. Make-it-on-my-own kinda thing.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

When I’m in management meetings when we’re deciding my future, those decisions are left up to me. I’m the one who has to go out and fulfill all these obligations, so I should be able to choose which ones I do or not. That’s the part of my life where I feel most in control.

Life’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

Example is leadership.

My justification is that most people my age spend a lot of time thinking about what they’re going to do for the next five or ten years. The time they spend thinking about their life, I just spend drinking.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

People are getting smarter nowadays; they are letting lawyers, instead of their conscience, be their guide.

I never wanted to stay in one genre; I never wanted to be pigeon-holed or defined as the actor who only worked in one genre. I want to be able to work in all different genres. For me it’s fun, and that’s how I grow as an actor.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

I thank God I’m in a position where I can pick and choose – there are some roles I don’t play.

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.

I’d go from film to film and almost detach from one world and jump in another. I was living as these people and not having a self. I didn’t know who I was. And things just get really dark.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

If you gonna wear the mohawk, you stick with it. You don’t just be dibby-dabbing. You make up your mind.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide. That’s the great thing about our country – we’re a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.

You’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.

When I’m a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It’s somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.

We will burn that bridge when we come to it.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

I am fearful, or suspicious, of generalizations… They cannot guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals.

If you judge, investigate.

It has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.

I will not play just an evil part. In fact, I got offered $7 million several years ago to play the part that Faye Dunaway played in ‚Supergirl.‘ I was kind of insulted. I was impressed with the money, but I said, ‚Why are you asking me to play an evil witch? Do I come across as an evil witch to you?‘

Acting is the perfect idiot’s profession.

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.

Meryl and Katharine Hepburn are probably the two greatest actresses of this and the last century.

Those who cry out that the government should ‚do something‘ never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing.

Locally, I’ll vote one way and nationally, maybe another.

The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.