I've been in very few flat-out comedies. But I feel like I've always made comedies.

I was born William. My father was William. I came from a big family, I hated being called Billy. Willem's a nickname; it's a Dutch name, very common in the Netherlands.

The worst thing is to get involved with people who aren't passionate about what they're doing.

The English Patient' is about the coming together of a French-Canadian nurse, an English patient, a Sikh in a turban and me, Caravaggio, and each of us is seeking a resolution to our own problems.

Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.

I never act. I simply bring out the real animal that's in me.

Sometimes I think women are lucky because they can develop in ways men can't. The old-boy network may be oppressive to women, but it actually stunts men in terms of personal growth.

The mask can be a limitation, but you just deal with it. You do get superhuman strength and pumpkin bombs and all this other stuff to express yourself with.'

You have to lose yourself to find yourself.

Action breeds inspiration more than inspiration breeds action.

I guess they often cast me as the bad guy, because I'm not, er, conventional looking. I look sort of violent. I'm the odd one out, the outsider.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

I was grateful to Ben the way you are grateful to someone who is unexpectedly kind.

An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate.

Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.

Invaluable....the best one-stop source I've seen for what various officials actually said at various times, suffused with intelligent analysis.

It is our duty to be faithful, not with eye service as men pleasers.

I don't know how many times a phone call or e-mail starts with, "I don't agree with anything you say but you're funny as hell so I listen to your show, I love your show."

Marriage is an institution very safely guarded.

I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it.

When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.