'The Hobbit' was one of the first biggish books I ever read. I remember vividly the 'riddles in the dark' passage, and it meant a lot to me to finally get to play it after all these years.

Be magnificent. Life’s short. Get out there. You can do it. Everyone can do it. Everyone.

I play saxophone, I play tenor sax.

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

That's what I think is the biggest challenge, is just being still and learning how to just be present in that stillness and not over do it, not over act.

When you come out of the other end of a long process, working with a character [you realize] this character has really shaped my ideas.

I believe that when people experience an event as a community it can transcend and change people's lives.

Performance capture is a tool that young actors will need in the next 10, 20 years. It's on the increase, as you say. It's not going away.

Performance capture is a technology, not a genre; it's just another way of recording an actor's performance.

I expect at some point I'll probably want to go back on stage and do some theater, because I've not done theater in 10 years.

I love acting and certainly won't give it up, but it's part of a bigger canvas for me now.

I was thinking, "So, I’m Emperor, am I? What nonsense! But at least I'll be able to make people read my books now.

The word animal is a derivative of the Greek word anima, which also means soul.

Doesn't seem quite real. It's not meaningful. I can't quite imagine myself being 73. That's the age my father was! [Laughter.] How can I be his age? It's weird.

For years, despite having impeccable taste, I didn't understand how to convey that I had impeccable taste.

We somehow forget that we can choose whether to make time an enemy or an ally.

The craze of genealogy is connected with the epidemic for divorce. If we can't figure out who our living relatives are, then maybe we'll have more luck with the dead ones.

If we must have heroes and wars whereinto make them, there is no war so brilliant as a war with the wrong, no hero so fit to be sung, as he who has gained the bloodless VICTORY of truth and mercy.

Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of this.

If you actually keep things very organized and clutter-free, you can have more furniture than you think you can in a small space.

Everyone should play like Adrian Peterson. This guy does everything full speed. Pro Bowl - promoting himself for MVP.