Then I realized that to be really good at this requires a lot of energy and concentration and skill.

But some actors I have met possess an intelligence that I can only dream of. It's about character, it's about behavior. They understand things about people that I simply don't see.

I can't talk about foreign policy like anyone who's spent their life reading and learning foreign policy. But as a citizen in a democracy, it's very important that I participate in that.

I saw and I met a lot of people who were in the field. It also provided a context in which I came to respect what the actor did, because I saw how difficult it actually was to do.

I've seen people with a tremendous amount of educational background in the field not turn out to be terribly good actors, and I've seen people with no education in the field turn out to be people that I admire quite a bit.

If you don't think you want to go on a train and read the paper every day and work from nine to six at night, there was something about the uncertainty when I was younger which was very attractive.

It made me think about a whole area of human activity that was not really a concern to me before that, because I was involved in reading Chinese history, or languages, or whatever.

Too often in the past, U.S. leaders have forced Israel to pay the price for American strategic interests in the Middle East - through concessions in the peace process as well as passivity in the face of Iraqi attacks.

Two, I actually learned a lot of things that served me very well when it came to repeating performances on stage, because it is a craft and you do need a technique for it.

Anyone who devotes time and attention to what makes people tick, to me, is a smart person.

I don't even like to use the word relationship. I don't know what it means.

You have to think an awful lot about your motivations or people's behavioral intentions or what their body language can indicate or what's really going on or what makes people sometimes do, sometimes, the irrational things they do.

The twentieth century has exhibited a barbarism and lack of respect for human life on a massive scale just about unknown before.

Acting is not about knowing all this stuff; it's about character.

Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers.

But why should I run for office and lose what little influence I have?

For about the first ten years of my career, I wasn't terribly motivated.

I do believe all actors are smart.

I had no desire from an early age to be on the stage.

I just don't get invited to the same dinner parties I used to like to go to.