The good and wonderful thing about my whole career is that I've always felt that the audience, if I do it well, will track wherever I go, whether it's President or a lawyer or bad guy or good. All I have to do is execute the material enough where they buy into it. I've had the great luxury of the audiences accepting that.
At fifty you realize that you are no longer a kid. I ignored forty. It was like I was almost at middle age. Maybe it's the baby boomer thing. But undeniably, I am a man. I have to accept [mortality].
I think what you have to do is have a box office success in every genre and then you're set for life. And fortunately, I happened to do that, so I get a myriad of offers of various sorts.
I'm too busy looking for the next role to do. I think about how to continue, to survive in the same vein. I like my career and my life as it is.
Dancing's part of my soul. I enjoy it, it makes people happy, and it makes me happy.
I wouldn't trade my career with anybody's. I'd trade a few movies with Tom Hanks - 'Apollo 13 and 'Forrest Gump' - but other than that, I love my career.
You have to remember everything you've created. But then comes a moment when it's all automatic pilot, where it all comes together and you don't have to think about it any more.
I called my son Jett and I wanted to call my daughter Qantas, but my wife wouldn't let me.
It's difficult for me to diet, so I don't. So, I make up for it in exercise. What I am willing to eat, I have to be willing to work off. It's that simple.
You feel alive to the degree that you feel you can help others.
Hollywood is controlled by homosexual Jewish men who expect favors in return for sexual activity.
For a while, I was saying 'no' way too often. I turned down 'An Officer and A Gentleman,' 'Splash' and 'Midnight Express.' I could name you tons more. I would go off and experience life instead of working - I was learning to fly jets, went on an African safari, sailed the Caribbean - which wasn't necessarily bad.
Money and power come as a byproduct of things well done.
If I'm androgynous, I'd say I lean toward macho-androgynous.
You gotta learn to laugh, it's the way to true love.
There are unwanted emotions and pain that goes along with any birth.
I told my manager, 'If we can't do the things now that we want to do, what good is the power?... Let's test it and try to get the things done that we believe in.'
My nature is happy. And all I can control is my response to input. If you come around me and tell me bad news all the time, I can say, "You know what? I don't want to hear it." If its just gossip, you know, I can choose not to hear it. And that, in effect, can control my mood.
Having kids is something you can't always do. Kids are like lightning. You grab that lightning when you can get it.
Even if the script's well written there's something about the life of an improvisation that resonates better than a written word, sometimes.
I feel very fortunate for audiences to have been so gracious as to allow me to do pretty much any role that I felt I could do. They let me play a president. They let me play a lawyer. They let me play a hit man. They let me play a father. They let me play Howard Saint.
I was just thinking of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe and how young they were when they died. I would like to be a pop icon who survives. I would like to be a living icon.
Sports, entertainment and aviation are three of the most exciting professions in the world; you are dealing with the same magnitude.
The first thing I ever rode when I was a kid was a motorcycle, so I knew how to drive a motorcycle before a car.
America isn't as lucky as you guys (Europeans), who for the most part have this quality of food that keeps you slim. We're over-eaters in the United States by nature, with fast food and all this kind of thing.
I decided when I was a kid that I would only go out of the house if I felt good enough to be bothered. Could I be interrupted at dinner? Am I in the mood? If I am, I go out. If I'm not, I don't! So, it's the art of deciding what the truth of your job is, and what you can and cannot handle. You can design your stresses.
To Americans religious freedom is sacred.
I have 12 paintings of Kaufman art. He is an amazing artist.
After nine or 10 years of being interviewed, you start wanting to team up with the reporter and get the job done.
I've done so many interviews that I've gotten past the ego and the personality. I used to feel that there might be something missing, but a few years ago I realized that I was so causative over how the interview went that I was no longer concerned over the effects of the interview.
And now after all this time I finally figured out how to trap him... I will become him.
I don't think I'm very cool as a person. I'm just better than anyone else at acting cool.
I've never had that concern of thinking of myself as stupid.
I've ridden a bike since I was 18. It was the first transportation when I came to Hollywood because it was inexpensive and easy for me.
It's easier to be responsible for the decisions that you've made yourself than for the ones that other people have made for you.
I'm not big on sequels; I've done them, but I like doing little things that have their own timelessness to them, classic type things, and then you go onto something new.
I'm definitely working class, and I still believe in those values. I know that losing everything would not be an unfamiliar feeling. Meaning, if you don't have it anymore, you didn't have it to begin with.
I'd been on a road trip right out of college, with a buddy of mine. It was uneventful. We didn't get laid. Although one time it was about 800 degrees and we were in Texas. We had shorts on and nothing else and somehow a motorcycle cop pulls up beside me and says, 'Come on, get on it, get on, go, go, go!' So I speeded up and it turns out we're in a huge state funeral. There are about 40 black Cadillacs in a row and then a green van called Mr Greenjeans, with two guys with no clothes in it.
Misdirection. What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.
I played football in the ninth and 10th grade. I looked a lot like Joe Namath, so I think my looks got me there more than my abilities.
I do feel fortunate in that I am probably allowed more often to be a character actor then most actors are allowed to be, and I don't take that lightly or superficially at all. I mean, I really do appreciate it.
I think my friend Tom Hanks knows me. He understands me very well. He’s always had a sort of parental feeling toward me. He knows I’m a big mush ball, which is just part of my personality.
I think, for sure, 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Pulp Fiction' were kind of bookends for - or the pillars of - my career.
Something can happen in your life, and you might want and need something different from your spouse. Most people forget that you have to create relationships. The allure of the first years settles down, and at that moment, you better start creating it; otherwise, you're going to lose out.
My son was autistic, and he suffered from seizure disorder every 5 to 10 days. He would suffer a seizure that would last 45 seconds to a minute and sleep for 12 hours.
Everything is on its way to somewhere.
Playing a bad guy is always a freeing experience, because you don't have the same envelope of restrictions as you have playing a good guy. Good guys restrain themselves; they kind of have their moral fiber cut out for them in varying degrees.
I don't believe in regrets; I believe your future is in your tomorrows.
The only thing I ran into is that I am a wanderlust, as far as travel and adventure. I will go off on any given moment with the family and friends to explore the world. I go around the world once a year. I go to Africa, you know, Russia, wherever... I love it.
My road trips have been to Vegas, but you know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
It's the interviewee's job to know that his privacy is going to be invaded on some level. Otherwise, you are better off not doing the interview.
Let's share our abundance and make our country stronger.
There's no rule that everyone has to change.
I have to believe there's some other life force out there. I don't know in what form. But we can't have all these galaxies and universes without something going on.
I've always thought of, of a relationship with an actor to an audience as a marriage, you know. And a story, you know. And there are ups and downs, and you work through them, and you work with them.
As you get older you have to force yourself to have new dreams.
I've always thought that as long as I did the right things and had the right intentions, everything would fall into place.
My frank response to all sex questions is that there is too much significance put on them to begin with. Sex is part of human nature, and I don't know why such a big deal is made out of it.
I believe L. Ron Hubbard resolved the human mind, and in resolving it he has also resolved human pain - that's what I really think has happened here.
One of the things about the whole Harley motorcycle culture is that it's a little bit renegade.
I am very healthy. Career wise, even old men get to be in movies. So as long as I am healthy, I will continue to make movies.
I've always had an innate ability to dance, but I'm not as spiffy as those cinema legends like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.
As you get older, you have to force yourself to have new dreams. For instance, I've been flying for 37 years, but now teaching others to fly is interesting for me. Sometimes you have to find new angles on life to keep you interested, like sharing successes and inspiring and helping others.
I probably have some sort of chocolate five times a week. There's definitely a change it does to the chemistry of the body. It's my favorite feeling. I live for it.
The upper echelon of the movie industry is easier to deal with and the work is much easier to accomplish because of this generosity of spirit and confidence that they instill in the group around them.
I’m willing to look my own nightmare on film, but if it endangers my life, then I’m willing to put my life before movies.
Autism and seizures are the least known areas of illnesses.
Tom Cruise has-we all have-the right to practice how we feel...don't judge someone until they have tossed your salad.
Let's share our abundance and make our country stronger. We can encourage programs that collect and distribute excess prepared food to local organizations that are helping the hungry in our own communities. We can also support programs that supply commodities to food banks. It's all part of committing our country's wealth and resources to end childhood hunger.
You just activated a nuclear warhead, my friend.
I never in a million years thought I would be starring in Hairspray, ever. Because if you think about my past, it's been 30 years of playing a macho leading man, so when I was offered it, I said: "Why? Why me? What have I done to deserve that you think I should do this?" After much convincing, over a year and two months, I was convinced they wanted to make a great movie.
I will direct one day, but I have a feeling that it will be very limited.
I like to fly at least once a day.
I don't mind gearing my life towards privacy. It's my nature.
I try to balance independent films with commercial films, and I've done a pretty good job of it over the years.
When I was a very little boy I lived underneath the air pattern of LaGuardia airport in New York and I watched the planes fly to their destinations. I was in love with the design of these airplanes.
You can't control the quality of projects that are coming to you, so if you get several in a row that are quality, you take them.
It's hard to make a cultural phenomenon every time.
It is about getting a sense of integrity about issues. That was was my enlightenment over it and knowing that I had a safe place to go to handle anything in life.
I like talking about sex. Especially when I'm horny, but even when I'm not.
Princess Diana was a nice dancer because she had confidence. In fact, when we danced together she started to lead, and I looked her in eye and went, 'No, you have to let me lead.' So I grabbed her around the waist and we were off to the races.
I had a bike the first time I moved to L.A. I had a Honda and I got around on that. But I'd never ridden Harleys.
I love watching old movies, and some of the holiday-themed ones are really great. I also have a bizarre thing that I'll do: I'll turn on a foreign-language TV station, usually Spanish, and watch a whole show, riveted, even though I have no idea what anyone is saying. I don't know why I find that so addictive, but I do!
I've always slightly regretted not taking up Chicago.
I was always a character actor, basically, that sometimes looks like a leading man.
If you're going to play a woman, you might as well play a woman that you liked, and someone sexy.
Playing President Clinton (in Primary Colors) was risky and challenging. Some people thought Saturday Night Fever was risky, because no one had danced in movies for years.
I have fame on the level of a Marilyn Monroe or an Elvis Presley, but part of the reason I didn't go the way they did was because of my beliefs. People make judgments about Scientology, but often they don't know what they're talking about.
I rode many bikes and motorcycles. My brother was in an accident when he was a kid and my mom forbade us to use motorcycles.
I couldn't function if I weren't allowed to stretch and do really different characters where I can change the whole "beingness" of that person. That's my pleasure in acting and has been since I was a kid. That's always been my pleasure to create complete characters.
The Beatles meant everything to me growing up, and John was part of that. I loved Lennon's persona. He knew who he was and he knew what he represented to a worldwide public... I think he incited and inspired a whole group of youth to speak out and say what they felt.
Never say anything unless you have to.
If you are going into show business for money and power, forget it! It won't happen. You don't go for that first.
You come to work knowing you're going to do good work without any doubt. You can go where you need to go and nothing is wrong and you pick the rightnesses out. If something doesn't work, you let them go, but you don't hold onto those wrongnesses. You just hold onto the rightnesses, so it's a playing field that anyone would want and feel much more comfortable with.
You have a freedom in playing the villain. You can be a lot more out there, really. And there is a joy in that. There is a joy in kind of making a zone of psychoses.
Christopher Walken was probably the most experienced dancing partner I've had in movies, because he has the same background as I do. He's from theatre, Broadway and off-Broadway, and we both shared that.
I grew up, in my childhood, with some of the greatest women performers, on stage and on screen, and even my family - my mother and my sisters. So I was very busy watching women, as a child! I have a lot of memories of great women performers
From the time I was a kid, I had a wanderlust. I always wanted to travel, in any form - plane, train, boat, car, motorcycle. So I think that if I ever do have a mid-life crisis, I have all the toys to refer to quickly.
Sometimes when something really works well, it becomes a target, forty years for me, I've been a part, and I've loved every minute of it. My family has done so well with it. It's been a beautiful thing for me. I've saved lives with it and saved my own life several times. Through my loss of my son, it helped me every step of the way for two years solid, and here I am.
People really need to take time and read a book. You know? That’s my advice. You could read A New Slant on Life, you could read Dianetics. And I think if you really read it, you’ll understand it, but unless you do, you’ll speculate. And I think that’s a mistake to do that.
I don't recall the so-called devilish things I do. But there are considerable amounts.
Life is overwhelming. Life is not easy. Life is tough and you need something that really works and helps you actually, not promises to help you, then fail.
The promise of change doesn't always mean something changes.
Good writing is good writing, but that doesn't mean you can't orchestrate it or tweak it.
When I was 8, I got a little toy propeller plane: You could turn it on and the people disappeared from the little windows and stewardesses appeared, and it ran along the ground.
I have a dance background. I have an athletic background.
I am not at all computer literate in real life. I haven't yet found a reason to be. Once I find a reason why I need to be on the Internet, then I will be.
He lives with his creativity in high gear.
I love being regarded as a sex symbol, but I can't take it too seriously.
I think aerobatic flying is athletic. I don't do aerobatic flying, but I would put that in a category of a sport. I would put regular flying in the category of an art or machine-type thing.
The women I liked when I was growing up, as a little boy, were Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, because they had these curvaceous figures, and they were erotic to me.
I believe in love and marriage, but not necessarily with the same person
When all else fails, fresh tactics!
I love fun movies that also have something to say. They tend to stay with me, always.
Well, I enjoy my life. You know, I think life is an art, and that one has to live it as an art. That's your choice.
I actually do like playing off-beat people. I think it's more fun.
Your life starts to take shape at 30. You don't have to make excuses for who you are anymore.
I'm a jet jockey and I've always escaped ever since I was a kid. I've always been a weekend type runaway person. Work hard, play hard type thing. It's not been a mid-life thing at all, it's been a habit because I think it changes your environment and how you feel even if it's for the day. It's a good thing.
There are two areas where you can't stop people misbehaving: eating and sex
Acting is a mix of luck and choice. I got lucky.
You know, I've never killed a man before. I mean I droped bombs on the enemy from the above, but never face to face. [thinking pause] I don't see what the big deal is - I really don't.
Every day my mother had tea. My dad has his ritual cigar. They had their evening cocktail. Those rituals were done nicely, with flair and feeling.
I don't want to create controversy; I just have an opinion on things, and there is nothing wrong with stating your opinion if you are asked. Everyone wants that right, and because you are famous doesn't mean you have less of a right.
I learned early on that there are certain things you can control in the press, and things you cannot.
So you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna do something really outrageous, I'm gonna tell the truth.
