Quotes from Matt Damon

Some people just see the glory and they don't want to know about the story.

I should have done it years ago. It's amazing I didn't even want cigarettes anymore.

I love shooting, when the character is interesting and the script is interesting, but the research beforehand is really fun. The whole process makes me anxious and restless, and I have trouble sleeping, just trying to figure out the character.

I think it's still hard for me to turn down work if it's really good because for so many years I was so desperate to get a job and couldn't and so it's kind of an anathema for me to turn down work.

The ideal life is you don't sell a single magazine, nobody's interested, but they want to come see your movie. Because that gives you true freedom.

I don't see as many movies as I used to. Or, I should say, as many movies as I would like to.

There are people who appear in the magazines and I don't know who they are. I've never seen anything they've done and their careers are over already. They're famous for maybe 10 minutes. Real careers, I think, take a long time to unfold.

If I had a bucket list, I'd say raising my four girls to be strong, good women would be No. 1.

It's an objective fact, that if you want to solve some of these huge, kind of bigger problems of extreme poverty, you have to include the women. They're the ones who will get it done.

Now I feel I have an unspoken deal with the paparazzi: 'I won't do anything publicly interesting if you agree not to follow me.'

If you work at something, you get better at it.

As a struggling actor, youre not looking for parts that define you; youre just looking for work.

Right before 'The Bourne Identity' came out, I hadn't been offered a movie in a year.

The only sci-fi movie that I've ever been offered that, had circumstances been different, I would have definitely done, was 'Avatar.' And I literally couldn't do it because of my schedule. But listening to James Cameron talk about 'Avatar' was so fascinating. Because he literally invented the world in his mind - and it literally existed.

I've been really lucky. I'll completely forget that I'm a celebrity. And then something will happen, and I'll go, 'Oh, right.'

I believe a solid, really strong middle-class is the key to making the country in the best way.

As for poker, I've stayed away from that, even though when I was in Vegas for Ocean's Eleven, I would get accosted by these guys begging me to play. They just want to take my money. They see me, think 'actor' and see some easy money.

If Brad Pitt walked down the street, cars would crash into each other. I'm really lucky not to have to deal with that.

I'd had people say, 'You'll enjoy being famous for a week, and you'll never enjoy it again'. But I don't think I had that week. I may have been working and missed that moment.

Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage

I think what makes a good actor's director is somebody who understands what I'm doing and is respectful of it, but who also has a vision and is directing me toward their vision in a way that feels productive.

Maybe if we sit out for the next few years and let Clint Eastwood get a little experience, he's going to be a good director.

For a lot of actors, our biggest fear is that we're going to start talking about things we don't fully understand and sound like idiots.

Success is not something I've wrapped my brain around. If people go to those movies, then yes, that's true, big-time success. If not, it's much ado about nothing.