Happy Birthday Dustin Hoffman!

The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk.

Aufhören... Was für eine frustrierende Vorstellung. Nur Menschen, die einen Job machen, gehen in Rente.

I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation.

Mich fasziniert Macht, die Physik der Macht und die Paranoia der Macht. Das Bedürfnis nach Macht existiert, weil es ein Ersatz für die Seele ist.

There's a rebirth that goes on with us continuously as human beings. I don't understand, personally, how you can be bored. I can understand how you can be depressed, but I just don't understand boredom.

Schauspieler zu sein, das ist die ultimative Flucht: Du kannst deine geheimsten Phantasien ausleben und vor der schrecklichen Person fliehen, die du vielleicht selber bist.

I think the most insulting thing you can do to a director is to challenge when he or she is satisfied with your interpretation.

Teenager sind Mädchen, die mehr über die Pille wissen als ihre Mütter über die Geburt.

And that's another reason to make this movie: We can put plays on film now, at a relatively small cost, and they will reach an audience they would never have reached otherwise.

Für die Ehe braucht man ein Alpha und ein Beta, nicht zwei Alpha.

Well first of all, it's hard to shoot a movie and break for a long time and then come back and do, in a sense, one of the biggest scenes that each character had.

Der Vietnamkrieg begann mit einer Lüge. Auslöser war der angebliche Angriff der Nordvietnamesen auf eines unserer Kriegsschiffe, das in der Bucht von Tonking stationiert war. Doch den gab es nie. Es war eine Lüge. Es war reine Propaganda diesen furchtbaren Krieg anzufangen. Manchmal wiederholt sich die Geschichte.

Well this is aptly called a junket, for both of us. I have never been to a house of prostitution, but I understand that you get in more than seven minutes.

Ehe funktioniert nur, wenn er eine Heidenangst vor ihr hat.

I did a movie called Marathon Man and it was one of my best memories.

Wenn man ein Schauspieler ist, steht man jeden Morgen auf, kann nicht schreiben, kann nicht malen. Man braucht 'nen Job, 'ne Rolle, um sein Handwerk auszuüben. Mir war nie bange, wenn ich pleite war. Nein, das Schlimmste war für mich immer, wenn ich mein Handwerk nicht ausüben konnte.

I did some writing and bought a book, and have been working on that as a film to act and direct in.

In diesem Moment kam mir die Erleuchtung und ich ging nach Hause und weinte. Ich sprach mit meiner Frau und sagte, dass ich diesen Film machen muss. Sie fragte mich warum und ich antwortete: ‚Weil ich glaube, dass ich eine interessante Frau bin, wenn ich mich auf dem Bildschirm sehe. Und ich weiß, wenn ich mich auf einer Party treffen würde, würde ich nie mit diesem Charakter sprechen, weil sie nicht die körperlichen Ansprüche erfüllt, die Frauen angeblich mitbringen müssen, um sie nach einem Date zu fragen. Da sind all diese interessanten Frauen, die ich nie kennenlernen konnte, weil ich gebrainwashed wurde.‘ ‚Tootsie‘ war deshalb für mich nie eine Komödie.

I believe - though I may be wrong, because I'm no expert - that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil.

Wer nicht pessimistisch ist, ist nicht realistisch.

One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed.

Ich hoffe inständig, dass ich morgen keinen Oscar kriege. Es würde mich fertig  machen. Ich hab‘s echt nicht verdient. Es war sowieso keine große Rolle.

Life stinks, but that doesn't mean you don't enjoy it.

In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.

If there is no direct threat why are we invading?

Myth is supposed to bring us together, but fantasy alienates us.

For me as an American, the most painful aspect of this is that I believe that that administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that's reprehensible.

If you have this enormous talent, it's got you by the balls, it's a demon. You can't be a family man and a husband and a caring person and be that animal. Dickens wasn't that nice a guy.

So when I told my parents I wanted to go into acting because I was flunking out of my first year of junior college, they were relieved that I had picked something other than joining the army. But I can't imagine how they had high hopes for me.

I feel cheated never being able to know what it's like to get pregnant, carry a child and breast feed.

Somehow I think it was declared very early on that I was the - if not the black sheep of the family, not a very good student.

I decided to become an actor because I was failing in school and I needed the credits.

Blame is for God and small children.

A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution.

I stopped working a few years ago because I just lost a spark that I'd had before. I thought I'd just try writing, and maybe start directing, but I did it very quietly.

Euthanasia is legal in Hollywood. They just kill the film if it doesn't succeed immediately.

If a lot of dogs are on the beach, the first thing they do is smell each other's ass. The information that's gotten somehow makes pacifists out of all of them. I've thought, 'If only we smelled each other's asses, there wouldn't be any war.'

I don't like the fact that I have to get older so fast, but I like the fact that I'm aging so well.

I got into acting so that I could meet girls. Pretty girls came later. First, I wanted to start off with someone with two legs, who'd smile at me and look soft.

I became an actor because I believed I was a failure. In acting, because so few of us ever get work, I could feel proud and fail with dignity. I was born into what I now know was a dysfunctional family. I found that out in therapy three weeks ago.

You go to the cinema and you realize you're watching the third act. There is no first or second act. There is this massive film-making where you spend this incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic. You can tell how much money the film is going to make by how it does on the first weekend. The whole culture is in the crap house. It's not just true in the movies, it's also true in the theater.

The truth is, the older you get, the less variety of parts you are offered. If you're a star and you've spent most of your career being able to take your pick of the litter, you notice when the offers start to diminish. You're too old to play leads, so you're offered the supporting role - but many stars don't want to make that transition. They see it as a sign of symbolic impotence. And that the audience will no longer regard them as a star. I love acting, and I'm not going to determine what I do based on what I fear other people might think. I do what I want to do.

We all believe what we read. I read how Tom Cruise and I were two big egos holding up shooting. I know that isn't true - but if I wasn't making a movie with him and I just picked up the paper, I'd believe it. That's interesting, isn't it?

I wanted to be a jazz pianist, but I wasn't good enough. I got into city college because I didn't have the grades to get into university. I took acting because it was a way to get three credits. I just needed three credits and my friend told me to take acting because it was like gym - nobody fails you. I took it and that's literally how I got involved in acting.

Stardom equals freedom. It's the only equation that matters.

On filming "Kramer vs. Kramer": What makes divorce happen is that you can't be in the same space any more, for whatever reason - but the love stays. And that's the killer. That's where the vehemence and anger and rage comes from.

I lived below the official American poverty line until I was 31.

I know it's written that I'm difficult. Barry Levinson - who I did four films with - told me that every press person comes up to him and asks, 'How do you work with that guy?' and he says, 'I've done nothing but extol what a privilege and fun it's been.' But not one interviewer has ever printed that. Look, the medical metaphor I use is, it's like you're on a table for brain surgery and you're being wheeled in and the guy leans in and says, 'Hi I'm your brain surgeon and don't worry - I'm not difficult, I'm not a perfectionist.' I am no different from the focus puller - you're either sharp or you're not.