I made it a point not to graduate. I thought that was a positive, independent kind of statement.

I'm tired of playing people who are complete washouts and bums. I don't mind waiting for the good ones to come along. It's like age. It's never bothered me. I've even forgot my birthday. Many times I've wondered if I should tell my real age, but now I think it's an honor, to be doing what I'm doing now at my age.

I've had offers that could've made me much richer and much more famous than I am.

I could have been a lot more famous and played leading men and everything. For whatever reason, I didn't go for it.

Fame in itself is, you know... It involves a whole discussion on just that word, 'fame.' It's a power; it's another degree of power, to be famous. I think it's obvious: you have more influence the more well-known you are. And, hopefully, it's righteously used.

The most terrifying thing for most everybody in the whole Western World is to take responsibility for your own life and to experience real freedom.

My father and mother were not that compatible. I don't think they had a good wedding night, and I was the product of that. We weren't close.

I'm just dealing with what's happening, with what is. Joy, happiness, good, bad, all those terms are meaningless to me.

I've got a pretty iconoclastic attitude about all institutions myself. And I just think the church was corrupted right after Christ was killed.

You want people to feel something when you tell a story, whether they feel happy or whether they feel sad.

I was singing the blues when I was six. Kind of sad, eh?

I was the classic killer. I always played an angry man. I think it was because I used to really be like that - I was hostile. And because I had a good sense of theatrical truth, I used my anger and rebelliousness and just went with it. Anger was just a part of me.

'Paris, Texas' gave me a chance to play compassion, and I'm spelling that with a capital C.