That joy of a creative environment, without any restrictions, is hard to leave.
Powers Boothe
Everyone has this vision of Jones as a maniacal ogre. Wrong. He was charming, sweet, and a fabulous speaker.
I wanted to be in 'The Emerald Forest.' I chased that one for six months before it all came about. I wanted to work with John Boorman!
There are more heroes than cops, FBI agents, and lawyers.
One thing that's thematically consistent in 'Sin City' is that all the performances seem to be of the same genre, like we're singing the same song.
I like to do things that are about relationships, work with quality people, and tell a different kind of story.
I was raised a Democrat, and now I'm an Independent.
I'm really enjoying the character now, but I don't want to just be Philip Marlowe. I wouldn't mind playing him every couple of years, perhaps, as a kind of open franchise - you know?
I've always wanted to play a hard-boiled gumshoe, as they say.
I've been fortunate in my career to have the opportunity to pick and choose the parts I play. I've also been lucky to always be involved with quality actors, quality directors, quality writers.
Some stars can make five or six failures in a row and continue to work - with a raise. I can't figure how that works. Maybe foreign sales or a smart agent.
When I first came to Hollywood, I played about as many guys who save the day and get the girl as I played heavies. It's just that heavies are more interesting and last in people's minds.
I think I'm pretty politically informed, and I find myself watching Senate hearings on C-SPAN.
Before I accept a job, I always talk to folks about it. 'Why does he kill these 22 people?' If they say, 'What difference does it make?' I know we have nothing more to talk about. A character has to be three-dimensional.
The first 10 years I was a professional actor, I did Shakespeare.
I got a lot of flak; in Texas, football is not only the social thing you must do, but you do it also to prove your manhood. They all couldn't conceive of why I'd want to stop to do 'The Importance of Being Earnest.'
I was the first one in the family, on either side, to go to college - much less graduate school.
If you're down, it's curse; if you're up, it's a blessing.
When I'm out there, it's just me. Nobody's controlling me, and I can do whatever I want to do. I'm my own man.
Sometimes, I feel like directors look at me and say, 'I want to put that boy in the jungle. I want to hurt him.'
If I rob a gas station, I'm going to get 15 years. If I steal $400 million on Wall Street, I start plea-bargaining.
I was raised a proper Southern boy.
I've had presidents in my lifetime - and I'm old enough to have seen several - that I really detested, but they're still my president. I've had presidents that I've really liked.
The office of the presidency is what's important, no matter who's in it.
We all want to pretend that there isn't evil in the world. We all want to pretend that there aren't people trying to take us out and different things like that.
I've got a family, and I love them, and I want them to have the best opportunities in the best country in the world, and I think we have to fight for it.
I'm not going to make my living out of beating my head against somebody else.
You don't do classics with a Texas accent.
I've auditioned five or six times. I'm not very good at it.
I come prepared when I come to work. Not just knowing the lines, but I think I know something about what I do.
When 'Deadwood' came along, it was totally like Shakespeare. The long speeches were like soliloquies. If one phrase of a monologue was out of whack, the entire one-page speech didn't work.
I have always been attracted to good scripts and try hard to make characters as believable as possible. That means trying to figure out how they would react to situations, what they eat, think, and feel.
We're in the business of making films, not striking or anything else.
I like to think of myself as fairly intellectual.
If there is anything I am about, it is I want justice in society.
We have real cliched ideas of what prison life is like. It is not a happy place. It's a desperate, sad situation.
There's something about playing the baddies that people like. They're more fun, and people tend to remember them, particularly if you do them well.
It's never a matter of career decisions. I don't think in those terms. What matters is whether a role is interesting, if I will enjoy playing it, and if I'm confident I can do a good job.
Since I've had some success, story and character are always the two elements I think about first in material presented to me. Some of my choices have been more successful than others.
Actors have far fewer choices than the public thinks they do.
I've always felt if you followed a real private detective around, it would be boring.
Any of us can sort of say we would do any number of things to feed our children.
