Once I looked into a mirror at my face I felt like it was completely convincing. I was Salieri.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, I don’t know if you’d call him a great actor, but he’s amazing in terms of his presence, and he is interesting enough that you want to watch him.

Whenever there were parties, I wasn’t invited because I began to be like that character. In a way, that contributed to the success of the performance.

Milos said, You’re my first choice. From my point of view, that doesn’t pay the rent. I said, Tell me what I have to do next because I’m busy painting my kitchen.

There is one confrontation scene toward the end of the picture. In the middle of the scene, I thought, That’s Sean Connery! I don’t know how else to describe Sean Connery. I still feel that way.

Suddenly I was the man who got the part that every actor in the English language was trying to get. I was really scared. I had talked the talk, and now I had to walk the walk. For three days, I couldn’t answer the phone.

The difficulty is capturing surprise on film.

People desire power. I don’t know why they want it so. It seems to me it implies a hugely superior intellect which separates them from most of the populace.

I’d like President Bush to get a gun in his hands. I’ll go with him. I can’t think of anything better than to die in place ‘s just beginning their lives.

I trust that the president will try, just give it one more shot, some revolutionary way of not doing this, of bringing all those kids back home safely.

Woody Allen sets are very quiet. Extraordinary sense of power from a man who doesn’t do anything except just stand there.

Once I looked into a mirror at my face I felt like it was completely convincing. I was Salieri.

If these men decided that they have to go in there and fight, I want them to send their own children and grandchildren. I want them to not send a bunch of strangers’ kids in there to fight and die.

I don’t want to talk in terms of miracles. I think this is a very serious situation. But I do want to talk in terms of Bush becoming a man of the hour, and I think this is way to do it.

There are certain men and women who, from the minute they step in front of a camera, that’s exactly where they belong. Connery’s one.

I think creativity is spiritual. I absolutely believe that.

I love parties. I love a good time.

I’d like President Bush to think maybe there’s another way to think, that maybe Kissinger was wrong when he says we had to go in there because he was wrong about Vietnam.

I really like to experiment. That’s the only way I can work. It’s instinctive.

I’m just having a wonderful time. It’s an interesting thing that I’m very comfortable with this material and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I did MacBeth.

I’m not going to just say nice things about everybody unless I mean it.

All the stuff that you visualized that was going to work so beautifully, you discover is trashed, so you jump to something else.

I’m a very proud actor.

As much preparation as I had made for the old man Salieri, gestures and so on, the fact is after sitting for hours, your movements are kind of slow.

I just throw it out and see what happens. If it sounds and feels right, then I continue.

With Dick Smith there, and the words of Peter Shaffer… they’ve got to be the most beautiful descriptions in music ever written on film or in literature. And we could hear the music accompanying the words… What more can you ask for?

The idea that you can make love and not war really is pretty neat. That thing in Korea, the thing in Israel – that’s all over the world. There must be a new way of thinking.

I have two brothers buried in the military cemetery in Texas. I don’t want to see any more of that.

I acted my heart out.

With Connery, he does act. He is in complete command. He completely trusts the person first, then the instrument. I’ve worked with his son also, on a picture in Russia.