Shaft was a pop culture figure along t he lines of, I guess, Dirty Harry - except that he wasn't as much of a racist. So yeah, I was always a fan.

I like New York because you're kind of forced to smell everybody else's funk. So it keeps you biologically attached to the world around you.

When you go to a restaurant, the less you know about what happens in the kitchen, the more you enjoy your meal.

I like to do theater and hopefully be effective. Most actors, at least contemporary actors of my generation, can't do it. They don't have the chops.

I think I was afraid of what I might say when I got onto someone's stage or in front of someone's camera.

The reason why things work is because of love.

Well, I like to be kept on my toes. I look for a challenge. I don't like to recreate steps that I've already walked. I like to see if I can create something new.

As much as we teach our kids, the process teaches us. If we're being diligent, we're learning from our strengths as parents, but also from the mistakes that we make.

New York is the greatest character actor ever. Any film that is shot in New York is elevated by the city.

You're a master on blues piano. The real deal.

The line between being a nurturing parent and an over-bearing, damaging parent is one that's very delicate.

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

You ought to stop everything and write the sacred-words as its flashes in your mind.

How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly.

You are truly classy if you manage to speak politely in spite of anger boiling inside you.

People choose bad at first then say we are unlucky .

Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.

It's a big chip on my shoulder that I have not been to any of his parties - P. Diddy, Diddy Puff. But he was super nice to me. And he does look sharp, that guy. Doesn't ever go wrong with a suit.

War some people glamorise war and glorify war. It's not nice, from whatever point of view you come from.

If life be long, I will be glad, Tthat I may long obey; If short, yet why should I be sad, To soar to endless day?

Altman was told they wouldn't do the film with me. He could easily have abandoned me, but he stood by me and really bailed me out.