Quotes

I was a teen star. That's disgusting enough.

[on celebrity] I have a healthy fear of it. I'm not into the celebrity culture aspect of being an artist. To me it represents extinction. The more people know about you, the less they want to try to figure out what you have to say in your movies, and the less credibility you have. To me it seems: Go do your thing, then get out. That's the best way to do it. (January 14, 2004)

Nope, no sex scandals yet. But I am open to offers! (January 14, 2004)

I won't call myself a child actor because that sounds psychotic.

I'm aware of the affection those characters inspired. I feel close to Lloyd in Say Anything (1989). He was like a super-interesting version of me. Only I'm not as good as him. Whatever part of me is romantic and optimistic, I reached into that to play Lloyd. Of course, now it's all gone. Now I'm just bitter.

[2007] I've made 10 good films. The ones that suck I tend to blank out. It's like I never even made them. Well, there aren't 40 that are great, put it that way. But that's fine. Ten is a good batting average.

You think about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died and all the soldiers who have come back wounded and maimed. You read the paper and four more soldiers last week died and mercenaries have killed 27 people in Baghdad, mercenaries who are getting money from our tax dollars that should be going to protect the troops, and I'm depressed about the Cubs game. There's a disconnect there. My point in all seriousness is that it's such an abstraction, and this government has asked us to sacrifice nothing for this. The troops are sacrificing everything. It just seems like an obscenity.

[1998, on his career and life] I feel very blessed, very fortunate, very happy. I love my work, I love my friends, I love my family. There was a period when I didn't work for about two years when I was about 25, 26, and I couldn't imagine what I would do with my life and that was scary. But now I have other things I love. I'm a pretty good kick boxer; I'm a pretty good writer; there are things I could fall back on. And you know how it is--the minute you realize that your options are unlimited, things just start falling into place all around you.

[on why he lives in Los Angeles] I kept saying that I'd never live in L.A., and I didn't think I would. But that's where the work is, and I ended up making a lot of friends there, and my old friends moved out to Los Angeles too. And also, I think when you're famous, its hard to live in a small town. Not that Chicago is a 'small' town, but when I'm there, which I am it lot because I love it and I still have an apartment there, people stare at me. It's like I'm more famous in Chicago. In L.A. and New York, nobody gives a fuck; in a big city, you can quietly do your thing.

[on if he prefers Chicago or Los Angeles] Chicago's a great city - definitely my favorite. But I'm more at home in L.A. because so many of my old friends are here now. I mean, I feel at home in both. What's hard in Chicago is that I'm more conspicuous when I'm there. It's harder to coast around.

Martian Child (2007) was just a movie the studio [New Line Cinema] offered me and it was the best job I could get at the time. It was about a relationship between a guy and another kid, and I thought that was good. It was a sweet movie. They offered it to me and that was the extent of that. Grace Is Gone (2007) was something I REALLY wanted to do.

[on giving interviews] I don't like doing them. If it was up to me, I'd just put the movies out there. Or maybe I'd do a couple - I'd think of some smart things to say so people think, "Oh, he's cool." It doesn't seem polite to try to be in the limelight more. I don't even know if I was invited in to begin with. I'm well aware that I might have worn out my welcome already.

If I feel they're playing with the tiger too much, I'm like: don't go there. Don't get into it. That stuff only goes one way. If people are constantly reading about you, and you're overexposed, they've got no reason to go see your movies. Also, it's not pleasant or nice to have your privacy invaded.

[on if acting has become more of a distraction] Uh, I don't think so. Acting can be pretty challenging. I can't say making a romantic comedy is challenging, but to do anything well, you have to put yourself into it. But no, if I'm doing some commercial movie just to keep my name in the public eye, then it's just a job. You don't have to sweat it too hard.

[on actors being 'tortured' people] I probably believed in it a bit when I was younger. Actors are weird enough as it is. We don't need to act tortured. I'm probably tortured enough.

[on if he enjoys acting] Sure. Depends on the film. I like to take risks. With acting, you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you're gonna get out of it. It's like the exact opposite of war, where you need an exit strategy. When you're acting, you should get all the way into trouble with no exit strategy, and have the cameras rolling.

[on doing 2012 (2009)] It's sort of the way the business is. If you do one type of movie it makes it a lot easier to do other kinds of movie that you want to do. It's just reality. But it's nice to get that call. "It's Sony's big release of the year, you've got the lead role." I thought, "Why not?".

The movies have got more corporate. They're making fewer movies in general, and those they are making are all $200m-$300m tent-pole releases that eat up all the oxygen.

[at the Maine political delegation breakfast on July 26, 2004, seeing Al Franken in the audience] I'm not going to try and be funny. (Franken replied, "I'm not going to try and act.")

Sometimes I'm think I'm in control, but more and more I realize that it's just a complete farce. It used to be that if you did a big, big movie then you could leverage it and make some smaller, cooler ones. And I got away with that for a few years. But now they just want you to put on tights. If you don't put on the tights they just want to get rid of you. And I'm not putting on the tights. So you know...

L.A. is a town full of so many desert crazies, snake-oil salesmen, carnival barkers and fake spiritualists that it's impossible to spot a real one.

[on why he only made a cameo appearance in Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)] They decided the problem was me, I guess.

[on whether or not there would be a sequel to Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)] Not with me! I produced the first one and oversaw the writing, and with the second one they just wanted a lower-rent one.

Theo Epstein has this weird hue around him. His vision helped end historic World Series droughts in both Chicago and Boston. But his power lies in a paradox, in the knowledge that the only way to keep power is to give it away. He knows Wrigley Field is a multigenerational secular church. Our families have been there a long, long time. We are all just renting - nobody owns this. Theo may be a creature of destiny, but he recognizes that he is also just another flawed human being, no better than anyone else. It's an artful thing to thread that needle and wear it as a matter of common sense. He's more Old World than old school. Words and deeds need to match. Trust is earned. He apologizes to no one for trying. You can see it in the eyes of those he holds close. The relationships are far more personal and dignified than people crowding around a winner.