I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it.

I cry a lot. My emotions are very close to my surface. I don`t want to hold anything in so it festers and turns into pus - a pustule of emotion that explodes into a festering cesspool of depression.

I was always shocked when I went to the doctor`s office and they did my X-ray and didn`t find that I had eight more ribs than I should have or that my blood was the color green.

One of the first signs of being depressed is that you lose interest in things. That`s why I think it is important to stay passionate.

I`m at the point now where I know I`m doing something right when a movie gets mixed reviews, because then I`m not in the box. I don`t want to make it too easy for people and I don`t want to make it too easy for myself. I want to try something unusual. I feel good about the bad reviews because I feel like I`ve affected them on some level. They may not know what I was trying to do but they felt something

I wanted to make an image for myself as an outlaw type. A kind of rock `n` roll sensibility.

Shock is still fun. I won`t ever shut the door on it.

I try to do as many stunts as they`ll let me do. I think it`s important for an audience to feel that the actor`s really doing it.

I think I jump around more when I`m alone.

My father was always getting excited about something. It`s genetically inside me somewhere.

I`m sad about this, but we shouldn`t have been married in the first place.

It`s a family that`s loaded with grudges and passion. We come from a long line of robbers and highwaymen in Italy, you know. Killers, even.

Passion is very important to me. If you stop enjoying things, you`ve got to look at it, because it can lead to all kinds of depressing scenarios.

As a teenager I was more of an anarchist, but now I want people to thrive and be harmonious.

There is a method of thought that says it`s better to stay mysterious, make yourself an event so when you come out, people have a hunger to see you again. I can think of some superstars who adopt that principle, where they are very selective. But we are all going to get older, and there is something to be said about doing some of your best work when you are younger, when you still have that virility, something visceral and raw. I`ve heard there have been some actors who`ve regretted not doing more work when they were under fifty. (On why he works so much)

I remember when I met Johnny Depp, he was a guitar player from Florida, and he had no idea he could be an actor. I said, "I really think you are an actor, that you have that ability." That was just from playing one game of Monopoly with him. I sent him to my agent and he has gone on to carve out a successful career.

What happens is, you become different people in your path as an actor. When I was doing those things, I was a very new actor. I didn`t have a lot of training, and I was trying to make some sort of impact, because that was what was important for me at the time - to get on the map. There were things I would do that were more shocking, or approaches I would do to try and live the character, because I didn`t have the training. But then, as I went on, I started to find other methods, ways to get into characters that weren`t exactly destroying my life. (On the wild eccentrics he used to get into character earlier in his career)

When I did Vampire`s Kiss, I got so wound up. It was so important to me that this vision I had of Peter Lowe`s character get on film exactly the way that I wanted it, that I frankly don`t think I was very easy for anyone to live with. Certainly, I was not easy for myself to live with. I remember that I wasn`t drinking or anything at the time. One night I felt so wound up that I was about to snap. I ordered a martini. And I just relaxed, and I could tell my body really needed a rest. From then on, I learned you can do good work without torturing yourself.

It`s good to make movies that are tragedies, where people can think about things in life that are undeniable, that everyone has to deal with. But at the same time, it`s also healing to make movies that are entertaining, that are a lot of fun, where you don`t have to think about your problems.

[Pablo Picasso] said art is a lie that tells the truth. What if you just want to tell the truth and not lie about it?

I needed to change my name just to liberate myself and find out I could do it without walking into a Hollywood casting office with the name Coppola.

It`s very risky for an actor who`s a bankable star to make pictures like The Weather Man (2005) or Lord of War (2005) because they inevitably promote them like big studio releases. And they`re not big studio movies, they`re more edgy, thought-provoking, independent-spirited films. What happens is, it goes into the computer, and everyone says they can`t open the movie because they thought it was X when it actually was Y.

I want to make all kinds of movies. I do want to make big movies that are a lot of fun to go to, but I also want to make movies that are going to stimulate some thought and maybe raise some awareness. And so please don`t think you`re gonna go on a roller-coaster ride with those movies.

I`m at the point now where I know I`m doing something right when a movie gets mixed reviews, because then I`m not in the box. I don`t want to make it too easy for people and I don`t want to make it too easy for myself. I want to try something unusual. I feel good about the bad reviews because I feel like I`ve affected them on some level. They may not know what I was trying to do but they felt something.

Hollywood didn`t know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild.

[about his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley] I`m sad about this, but we shouldn`t have been married in the first place.

I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion.

There`s a fine line between the Method actor and the schizophrenic.

To be a good actor you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to break the rules to strive for something new.