Ryan Phillippe

“I want to make movies that people talk about when they leave the theater, that aren't clear-cut, but effective and fulfilling in some sense.”

“To be more involved and more aware is appealing to me.”

“What's more ludicrous is the whole idea of me being jealous and competitive.”

“I really respond to diversity, a broader landscape, with actors of different ages and races and backgrounds.”

“There are a lot of good stories out there, but I haven't found too many great scripts.”

“LA can be a very open and accepting creative environment. But it is important, because there is this odd separation here, it is important to make your kids mindful of other people and other people's plight.”

“But I'm not particularly comfortable around guns.”

“To me, White Boy Shuffle is sort of like Catcher in the Rye, the story is so universal.”

“Granted, there are times when, for business reasons, you do something that's more mainstream. But even then, I try to find something that has a dark or subversive aspect.”

“Look at music: I've always loved hiphop and rap, and now there's this whole progressive movement, with De La Soul and Mos Def, Common. It's some of the best stuff around.”

“I'm really interested in having a studio one day and being a filmmaker.”

“You know, social issue movies don't make a lot of money.”

“It's nice that people want to compliment you in some superficial way, but I've never considered that that's how I might be categorized. I guess it's better than being called ugly.”

“The idea of doing something that you've seen a thousand times before doesn't appeal to me.”

“I know that when I grew up I was pretty sheltered, and didn't come to understand much about the world until I was in my really late teens and early twenties, and that process continues.”

“Tarantino's stuff in its inception was all about finding a way for him to break into Hollywood.”

“I am miserable when I'm in a movie I'm not proud of and a movie that I don't want to do.”

“I've written something and I would like to have my first film directed by the time I'm 30.”

“Tarantino's movies, I really enjoy, certainly, and when I was 19 and 20, I was really into them.”

“Well actually, some weeks they'll write that I'm jealous of living in her shadow. Then other weeks, they'll write that all I want to do is loaf around on her money! It's ridiculous!”