American Quotes

I think of myself as being a relatively intelligent man who is open to a lot of different things and I think that questioning our purpose in life and the meaning of existence is something that we all go through at some point.

I think everyone is very surprised at how 'Matrix' has become the pop culture phenomenon that it is.

I play characters. I don't think I really have a persona per se. I don't play the same guy every time. I show up, you don't know what I'm gonna do. I like it that way. I've intentionally tried to do it that way. I think that's what's interesting.

I came up around people who took acting seriously, who cared about acting, cared about the theater and, in the '70s, made movies that said something that mattered. I came up with those people, and I was a kid. Their ethos and credo became mine.

Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential elements. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

I certainly believe that being in contact with one's spirit and nurturing one's spirit is as important as nurturing one's body and mind. We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit.

We in universities are not in the democracy business. What we do, when we're doing it, is teach and learn.

Many people on the political left found my work psychologically liberating. They began to say: once you realize that standards emerge historically, then you can see through and discard all the norms to which we have been falsely enslaved.

It is always incorrect to assume you can know what someone's moral convictions are based on their philosophical theories.

In general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offers a stance that is defensive, cowardly and likely to be ineffective.

I do not support abortion rights. Although what I would support in this vexed area is not clear to me.

Belief and knowledge are considered to be two different things. But they are not.

Any idea can be brought into the classroom if the point is to inquire into its structure, history, influence and so forth. But no idea belongs in the classroom if the point of introducing it is to recruit your students for the political agenda it may be thought to imply.

It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are.

I should have known better. Pro-life arguments are now based on scientific evidence and the pro-choice arguments are not. That is a cultural, historical fact.

If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.

What this country needs is radicals who will stay that way regardless of the creeping years.

The essence of our effort to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each an equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different-to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit he or she possesses.

Tilda Swinton is a great example of a person who completely disappears into a role.

The fun is getting to wear multiple disguises and getting to explore multiple personalities and bring them to life. So a movie career definitely affords me that.

The Farrelly brothers make movies the way you imagine a movie set would be when you're a kid - fun all the time.

Sometimes doing a movie for a short period of time is better than committing eight months to a television show.

Sometimes acting is really cool because it forces you to exercise certain muscles in your personality that you wouldn't normally be called upon in life.

I've had Susan Sarandon play my mom, and now Lesley Ann Warren has played my mom, so if I could have Debra Winger play my mom, then I would have the trifecta of my favorite actresses playing my mother.

I'm not one to air my dirty laundry for the whole world.

I'm a very thoughtful, forward-thinking, planner kind of person. I love Excel spreadsheets and five-year-plans, and I love to review every year how my New Year's resolutions went.

I'm a believer in the parent first, friend second philosophy, and trying to find that balance.

I went to a little liberal-arts college in Missouri called Truman State University.

I think that there is a tragic misfit at the core of me, and I've just done a lot of work on myself. I love a good self-help book; I've read a ton of them. I love self-help seminars and therapy and all that.

I studied theater in college, and I really wanted to be an actress and play a lot of different roles. Then I made landing on a television comedy my main focus.