Jeff Bridges

“You know, I thought we could use a good myth about technology to help guide us through these particular modern waters right now.”

“Any role that big is going to be a challenge for any actor, but for an actor of a young age, it's going to be even tougher.”

“The barn doors are open, and the horses are running out because we've got guns all over the place. It's basically a cold war for individuals: you've got a nuclear bomb, and I've got a nuclear bomb, and the only thing stopping us from using them is the fact we both have them.”

“I don't think I ever went down that movie star path. I always enjoy taking a 90-degree turn from the last thing I did.”

“I've had really great experiences working with first-time directors. They come at filmmaking with fresh ideas. I've been very lucky that way.”

“Unlike a lot of actors, my father encouraged all his kids to go into show business.”

“I first got involved with ending world hunger, and I got hip to the facts about it - what a huge problem it was and how it wasn't a matter of not having food or not knowing how to end it, but it was a matter of creating the political will.”

“I'm one of those guys that spins through the clicker when I'm watching TV. When one of my movies comes on, I'll watch a scene or two.”

“I'm used to watching old movies of myself.”

“Making a film, it uses a certain... 'pretend-muscle,' I don't know what you want to call it. It exhausts something in me, I find. It has to be really something to get me interested.”

“I do a lot of ceramics.”

“Tightness gets in the way of everything, except tightness.”

“My M.O. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me. I'm in this wonderful position to be able to do that.”

“I've been playing since I was a teenager, and I put out a few albums when I was younger. When 'Crazy Heart' took off, it gave me another reason to get into music in a more serious fashion.”

“In life and in movies, it's a similar challenge, where you have expectations, and you end up in situations that are not meeting your expectations.”

“As far as the lack of hits goes, I think perhaps it's because I've played a lot of different roles and have not created a persona that the public can latch on to. I have played everything from psychopathic killers to romantic leading men, and in picking such diverse roles I have avoided typecasting.”

“You prep, you prep, you prep. And on the day that you film, you let all of that go. I try to achieve emptiness as much as possible - the Zen thing - to let the deal come out of that nothing.”

“Sure, I get the blues. But what I try to do, is apply joy to the blues, you know? I don't know if it's a technique, or just being bent that way, being raised by the folks I was raised by.”

“The Widelux is a fickle mistress; its viewfinder isn't accurate, and there's no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality. I like that.”

“This industry is tough on relationships. I've always thought that my wife should have a credit up alongside mine because I couldn't do what I do without her support.”