On ‚Think Like a Man,‘ they got the best out of me because they allowed me to bring my own cadences and opinions to the character that I was playing. I think we got the best of that particular character.

Men are only as great as they are kind.

I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It’s like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I’d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.

Playing big, heroic characters with heart is always a lot of fun. I enjoy making movies like that, and a lot of people love to live vicariously through those characters.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

It’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

Dakota Fanning is a child, but she is a wonderful actor. I don’t know what a child actor is. She’s an actor who’s a child.

I play a nobody in Japan.

An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.

Erudition – that is, reading, writing, and arithmetic – is taught in the schools; but where is the more important quality, character, taught? Nowhere in particular. There is no authorized training for children in character.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

I love performing, you know, because, like I say, I’m a ham for this stuff.

On ‚Grey’s Anatomy‘ I wouldn’t care what I was playing – I would play a corpse, ‚cause I love it that much. It is deep true love, and it will never die.

There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, ‚Oh, you’re playing yourself.‘ I guess it’s kind of a compliment. Or people say, ‚Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.‘ The work is to make it look effortless. That’s the hard part.

At some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

There are thousands of boys being wasted daily to our country through being left to become characterless, and, therefore, useless wasters, a misery to themselves and an eyesore and a danger to the nation. They could be saved if only the right surroundings or environment were given to them at the receptive time of their lives.

I think that people are interested seeing me on the screen.

There is a need for aloneness, which I don’t think most people realise for an actor. It’s almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you’ll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you’re acting. But everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like sort of a chunk of you.

I’ve always loved the idea of playing Black Adam.

I have to admit, I sometimes wonder how much more successful I would have been as a coach had it not been for my spending summers on the golf course. I could have watched more film, that’s for sure. One advantage Joe Paterno had over me was that he didn’t play golf.

I think if you make a good movie, people walk away arguing.

When I started out, I didn’t have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous.

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

The funny thing is that I feel close to all my characters. Deep, deep inside them all.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

You cannot be a hero without being a coward.

I’ve got a great sense of humor, and if I’m able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that’s hugely flattering.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

It’s nice to finally get scripts offered to me that aren’t the ones Tom Hanks wipes his butt with.

Oh yes. I’m an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.

I’ve played real people before, but I never knew them.

All of the Vines that were acted & setup & had nice cameras, those weren’t the good Vines. The good Vines were, like, a random little kid in the middle of a forest, like, yelling.

When a family film is done well, there’s a character that every member of the audience can relate to. I want to be one of those guys.

In acting, you have to pull from real-life situations, from people, to help develop a character.

I’m not interested in cutting the feet off my characters or stretching them to make them fit my certain political view.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.

I always play women I would date.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

I like talking. I like acting.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

The most propagandistic element of ‚Frozen‘ was the transformation of the prince at the beginning of the story, who was a perfectly good guy, into a villain with no character development whatsoever about three-quarters of the way to the ending.

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

Acting is a question of absorbing other people’s personalities and adding some of your own experience.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

My show ‚The Big House‘ was picked up; they flew me to New York. I’m about to step on stage to announce Kevin Hart’s ‚The Big House.‘ And a hand grabs my shoulder, ‚Kevin no, they just decided to cancel it.‘ It’s a serious smack-in-the-face business, and either you can take it, or you can’t.

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

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.

And of course to work with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and work with a wonderful, beautiful script directed by Nancy Meyers, it was really for me a dream come true.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.