Sean Penn

“I think you start to prepare the minute you read something.”

“What happens is things come to you - director, script - and if you respond to it, it's because it's tapping into some part of what's inside you, and different roles tap into different parts.”

“I can make a better living as an actor than I can as a director. Though I certainly would prefer to be directing movies.”

“My favorite thing to do is not act - it's that simple.”

“Turning one's back on stardom might be the highest form of common sense. One that I would aspire to be more complete with.”

“Well, I think that when you direct a movie or write it. And in the case of the two movies I did, I wrote and directed, they occupy a special place for you.”

“I live in the energy and rhythm of the character. To some degree, that's true of every actor I've worked with.”

“I like to believe that love is a reciprocal thing, that it can't really be felt, truly, by one.”

“When I was growing up and somebody like Robert De Niro had a movie come out, it was a cultural event. Because he had such a confidence and a single mission that was so intimate.”

“I think life's an irrational obsession.”

“There are a few directors around who I have some excitement about spending my $7 at the theatre watching their movies.”

“I had a house burn down once, and everything in life burned, except my family, and it was so liberating. I didn't have a bad moment about it. It sort of reinvigorated my interest in a lot of things.”

“Child-rearing is my main interest now. I'm a hands-on father.”

“The major studios are by and large banks, and they give you what is by and large a loan to make a movie. Like banks, they want their money back plus.”

“I've been a road-rat since I got my driver's licence at 16, so I've probably gone across America 20 times.”

“I consider myself fortunate that in my home, acting or the creative arts were a good option. This was a respected tour of duty in my family. Acting wasn't something that was left to tragic bohemians. But we weren't a family that obsessed on cinema.”

“In school, I was a genius of the year preceding the year I was in, every year.”

“היא הייתה בתהליך הפיכתה לכוכבת הגדולה בעולם. אני רק רציתי לעשות את סרטי ולהתחבא. הייתי צעיר זועם. היו לי הרבה שדים ואין יודעים מי יכול היה לחיות איתי באותה תקופה. התנהגתי לא פחות טוב ממנה, אז אני לא יכול להפנות את אצבע מאשימה.”

“לא"ל דוקטורוב היה ציטוט בו השתמשתי פעמים רבות, שהאחריות של האמן היא לדעת את התקופה בה הוא חי.”

“האולפנים הגדולים הם כמו בנקים גדולים, והם נותנים לך הלוואה להכנת סרט. כמו בנקים, הם רוצים את הכסף שלהם בתוספת.”