The drive for happiness is vital; it's what keeps us in motion.
Richard Gere
The secret of my success is my hairspray.
If the work is going well and it's something that has value with some meaning to it, it gives back a lot.
The Dalai Lama said that he thinks mother's love is the best symbol for love and compassion, because it is totally disinterested.
I tend to be a bit of a dreamer.
Everyone responds to kindness.
I don't know any of us who are in relationships that are totally honest - it doesn't exist.
Well I think on a simple ecological level that the diversity of this planet is important for our survival, that all of our different cultures, people are important to the health of the whole the same way that a species of animal should be saved and at a simple ecology level.
My first encounter with Buddhist dharma would be in my early 20s. Like most young men, I was not particularly happy.
I'm not that tough; I'm not that smart. I need life telling me who I am, showing me my mind constantly. I wouldn't see it in a cave.
People don't understand what happiness is, so they have an idea of what will make them happy, but it never does.
It's nice to have money, but the first thing I did with money was buy my father a snow-blower, because my job was to shovel snow, and I wasn't there to do it any more, so I was able to buy him a blower.
There is nothing real about film. Nothing. Even the light particles that project the film can't be proven to exist. Nothing is there.
Certainly there have been better actors than me who have had no careers. Why? I don't know.
People have a different idea of how movies are made than they really are.
Mindfulness is a quality that's always there. It's an illusion that there's a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you're either mindful or you're not.
I can't say I have control over my emotions; I don't know my mind. I'm lost like everyone else. I'm certainly not a leader.
In saving Tibet, you save the possibility that we are all brothers, sisters.
When someone has a strong intuitive connection, Buddhism suggests that it's because of karma, some past connection.
From a Buddhist point of view, emotions are not real. As an actor, I manufacture emotions. They're a sense of play. But real life is the same. We're just not aware of it.
Sometimes I'm kind of spacey. I'm like Ferdinand the bull, sniffing the daisy, not aware of time, of what's going on in the real world.
In the process of developing a character, you do, in fact, start to take him on as a personality.
When His Holiness won the Nobel Peace Prize, there was a quantum leap. He is not seen as solely a Tibetan anymore; he belongs to the world.
My life is pretty simple and normal.
Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.
I cry every chance I get.
All of our energy should be in sacrifice and services. Suffering, at least.
Even in comedies, you've got to feel safe for things to just happen in a way that is natural and free, and recognizable as human.
I meditate. Daily practice is essential to my life.
I think life is self-examination. Certainly the voyage that one takes.
I'm voting for Gore because the other is unthinkable. Which most of us will probably do. I hope all of us. I've always liked Ralph Nader and would like to see a real third party, but the thought of George Bush as president is unthinkable.
What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love.
It's not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it's not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.
I have made plenty of mistakes. The key to life is to learn from them. I have been a little too introspective, but I think that stemmed from insecurity or shyness. I took a long time to grow up.
I've lived in New York when I've had nothing, and I've lived in New York when I had money, and New York changes radically depending on how much money you have. It's the texture of life.
Billions of people don't practice a religion at all.
I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn't mean that they are the best ones to do it.
I don't think that bravery is about skin. Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need.
I'm a 50 year-old guy and I'm not in shape like I was when I was 30.
I'm less needy about needing to express myself through acting. I have many different lives outside of this that are extremely fulfilling.
In a way, one gets stability from being able to order the rational mind.
Maybe the Dalai Lama is the only person who is totally honest, and even with him, he's skillful not to hurt anybody. He's skillful.
There's really one character for every actor. The voyage is to find that one character.
Tibetan Buddhism had an enormous impact on me.
Western Buddhists in many ways are much serious Buddhists than Tibetans are.
When I started acting, it was really the way for me to be able to communicate.
When you work as an actor, you've got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.
I'm younger than I once was. Internally. Less self-conscious. Less insecure.
Everyone seems to think they know what acting techniques are. Techniques just help you get to a certain place, but if the thing is happening just by itself, you don't need those techniques.
I have no sense of time, and I'm a dreamer.
