I first decided to become an actor at school. A teacher gave us a play to do and that had a major impact. At first I wanted to work in the theatre but there was something about the ambience of film especially American films that always attracted me.

I had a teacher in art school who said something about the only works he really enjoyed seeing or found much in were works where he had a sense that a discovery was made in the course of making this object. I like to hold to that as my marching orders.

I was very studious too much. I would never go out at weekends. I was very serious. You should have seen me in class - I was blushing and sweating every time the teacher asked me something.

I went to a Catholic high school and it seemed like every time I drew something for a class project it either got thrown away by the teacher or something.

In my teens I developed a passionate idolatry for a teacher of English literature. I wanted to do something that he would approve of more so I thought I should be some sort of a scholar.

I think my parents were happy that I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in history so they thought 'Well if acting doesn't work for him he can always become a history teacher or something.' Fortunately the acting worked out.

I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music if thought of as a language would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial.

In the fourth grade my history teacher gave us a project: Why was the auto industry located in Detroit Michigan? I didn't know I was going to be an economist but I knew I was going to do something that was involved in answering questions like that one because I thought that was a fascinating question.

I didn't read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature I just wanted to do something else.

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner my acting teacher told us. When you create a character it's like making a chair except instead of making someting out of wood you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

Discussion in class which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know.

I wanted to be a teacher but I was a lousy student one of the slowest readers. It was a tremendous struggle. But I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.

I have great sympathy for people that are infertile but a life is not something you can give away.

There's something very beautiful and compelling about someone who has ambition and someone who knows what they want but it can get a little frustrating at times so I understand that. I have sympathy for that.

Sympathy is something that shouldn't be bestowed upon the Yankees. Apparently it angers them.

I've always liked Saturn. But I also have some sympathy for Pluto because I heard it's been downgraded from a planet and I think it should remain a planet. Once you've given something planetary status it's kind of mean to take it away.

The cure for sorrow is to learn something.

You can take Elvis. You can take Marilyn Monroe. Success and fame will not be the answer if something inside of you is bothering you if things in your mind aren't going right.

I think that everything you do helps you to write if you're a writer. Adversity and success both contribute largely to making you what you are. If you don't experience either one of those you're being deprived of something.

Success comes to a writer as a rule so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.

For me I don't feel it is a success in the career to be the pretty woman career success comes from being characters who tell us something about the truth.

The success of Watermark surprised me. I never thought of music as something commercial it was something very personal to me.

I think that everybody in the world whatever colour or creed has a jerk like JR in his or her family somewhere. Whether it is a father uncle cousin or brother everybody can identify with JR and that certainly had something to do with the success of 'Dallas.'

All business success rests on something labeled a sale which at least momentarily weds company and customer.