Sean Penn

I think we all have light and dark inside us.

I think life’s an irrational obsession.

Love is a mess, at best, and I figure it can be very real in spite of all the things people try to attach to it.

Well, I think that when you direct a movie or write it. And in the case of the two movies I did, I wrote and directed, they occupy a special place for you.

There’s not a lot of good movies being made.

Sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an unprecedented preemptive attack on a separate sovereign nation may well prove itself a most temporary medicine.

The bottom line is, you love your wife, you do your best with that.

If there’s anything disgusting in the movie business, it is the whoredom of my peers.

There are a few directors around who I have some excitement about spending my $7 at the theatre watching their movies.

You try to do your best at what you’re getting paid for.

Child-rearing is my main interest now. I’m a hands-on father.

Somewhere along the line, the actions of this government are the actions of me.

I like to believe that love is a reciprocal thing, that it can’t really be felt, truly, by one.

I love acting, truly my favorite people are actors.

I’m not a breakfast eater.

Yeah, I had actually tried to stop acting before I made Dead Man Walking.

My favorite thing to do is not act – it’s that simple.

I’ve never really been one to get what they call stage fright so much.

So if we have anything original to offer, it’s to speak from our own life about the society we’re in.

What happens is things come to you – director, script – and if you respond to it, it’s because it’s tapping into some part of what’s inside you, and different roles tap into different parts.

Yeah, I had a tremendous time shooting in Nebraska. I like that state a lot, all over it.

It has nothing to do with the emotional demands of a role; I’ve done comedies that are as draining to me as any drama.

That on a romantic level, if you feel it about somebody and it’s pure, it means that they do too.

In between, I go broke because I seem to do movies where you’re not paid a lot as an actor.

If you’re willing to put two thoughts into a picture then you’re already ahead of the game.

I think that I’ve still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I’d like to work on that.

There is no re-inventing the wheel.

I think you start to prepare the minute you read something.

At this stage, what would be rewarding would be for audiences to want to watch.

Oh, I’m a big-mouth. I said a lot of things.

There’s a lot of mediocrity being celebrated, and a lot of wonderful stuff being ignored or discouraged.

I really love to make movies.

Marriage ain’t easy, but it’s great most of the time.

I don’t have any particular excitement about working with any specific director or actor at this point.

Well, look at all of these summer blockbusters. You can’t help but laugh a little, because you’ve already seen a lot of these movies 482 times.

On any movie I’m involved with, I say what I think.