Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself the most comforting words of all this too shall pass.

But when you're writing a script - for me anyway - you have to sort of create an enforced innocence. You have to divest yourself of worrying about a lot of stuff like what movies are hot what movies are not hot what the budget of this movie might be.

All studio movies are the middle of the Bell curve. The only way to do something is to do it yourself. And the only way to do that is to not take any money from anyone or take as little money as possible from anyone and that's it.

Look at the same time that I don't want to be a celebrity I understand that when you make movies you put yourself out in the public eye. I'd be a baby and a fool to be like 'Why are there cameras taking pictures of me?' when I'm on a billboard for a movie. I think that's a very absurd concept.

If you're not a real chameleon of an actor and if you're not one of those guys who can really shape-change themselves all the time one of the ways to keep pushing yourself and keep changing is to be in different kinds of movies.

Trying to constantly get yourself into movies is extremely stressful and sometimes just impossible.

I learned a lesson which I didn't heed: Don't put yourself in your movies. It's too much.

The music led to the acting. But movies aren't something you can just will yourself into. Someone has to choose you and you have to be quite fortunate to be chosen.

De Niro was a hero of mine. And Sean Penn. But I've realized I can't operate at that level of intensity. That's okay for movies. On TV when you live with horror day in and day out you have to protect yourself.

I think there's a real joy in going to see movies when you discover them yourself.