Quotes About Interpretation

Acting lessons teach you to really listen to what the other person is saying because in acting it's all about responding to the lines.

If I don't see an emotional response to a dress, then I think something's wrong.

Sometimes I make things that people have very strong responses to. Whether that's art, I don't know. That's one of those words that doesn't mean anything. It's why I don't just use words.

When you start reading a piece together, you get a sense of someone's basic philosophy of music without saying a word. You realize the other person's approach, how they express themselves, the kind of restraint they show, all those things.

I do think people do pick movies that reveal something about them that they aren't always aware of. If you ask them what kind of an actor they think they are, they'll probably tell you something different than what they've actually done.

A lot of actors, whatever movie you're working on, you make up a back story just for your own, to work off, even if the audience doesn't have it revealed to them. I think it's important that the audience makes up their own mind.

Watching somebody sing reveals a lot about character.

I don't expect anything from reviews. Sometimes I am bemused by them.

I actually hate lyrics, and I hate it when they're quoted in reviews. I don't think they matter that much; it's the sounds of words - not the words - that I look for.

Never use dogs to symbolize anything. That is ridiculous. Always ensure that any dogs are just dogs; i.e., characters in the story who happen to be dogs.

When you take a picture of someone, never show it to them right away. If they don't like it, they may erase it.

The stuff that's made up about Jesus - that you have to go through Jesus to get to God and if you're lucky, after you die, if you've done everything right, the reward is you get to sit on the right hand side of God. All that is made up by men. People made it up.

I don't think I'm the right man to adapt a book.

There's no one right way to teach poetry in schools.

Robert Browning - I like his dramatic revelations, his allegorical form.

Acting is not rocket science, but it is an art form. What you are doing is illuminating humanity. Or not.

As an actor you become that lighting rod between the person who made the play and the audience.

Rock & roll is not about what you play, it's about how you play it.

I tried to forget about playing Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet' and just think about him as a normal guy, as a normal character, and just try and approach him the same I would every other character.

Elections are always a Rorschach test - people look at the results and see what they want to see.

I want to know exactly how the first few measures are going to go, and the rough shape of a movement or the whole piece and its essential character.

'Routine' was written on piano, and you can hear that. But then you listen to 'Happy Returns,' and you can tell it's definitely been written on guitar, with that singer-songwriter-y strumming quality.

I went through a period of watching probably too many Bergman films in a row. I felt like I'd discovered the answer to what cinema should be.

Not all art is great; most of it's rubbish.