I know a couple of my friends - quite a few - there is a conservative movement in Hollywood, and we kind of stay amongst ourselves.

The war on terrorism is part of the war with Iraq.

Great storytellers in the past would go to an unknown land and return to tell the stories they`ve found. Those were also journeys into their inner psyches and that`s still true today. An actor, a writer, does that as if saying, "Here`s what I`ve discovered about myself and about the world I`m in. I would like to share this with you." It`s an act of giving.

(on his beginning acting training) I was frustrated at Hofstra (University), so I moved to Manhattan, worked as a waiter and at a fruit-and-vegetable stand. I lived in a cheap railroad flat on East 171st Street, took classes at Juilliard and finally worked my way into Stella Adler`s actors` studio. And that made all the difference. This woman was like getting a flame inside you, she was so inspirational.

I can play the bad guy, the character with the edge, but I would like him to get the girl without having to put a gun to her head, you know? Look at the careers of Robert Mitchum, Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney started out playing the adversary, too. I feel an affinity towards them. Right now, you have a lot of leading boys, but no leading men in the old sense of the word. There`s a need for that and I think I can bring that to the screen.

[on George W. Bush and the "war on terrorism"] We have to protect America. And I think that, thank God we have this administration and this president.

In the 8th Grade I found I had a voice for opera, so I followed that path a little, but my impulse has always been an actor. I have always liked cinema, and let`s face it, opera singers are just bad actors! I didn`t want to translate myself in that direction. My heroes were people like Spencer Tracey, Bogart, Mitchum, Marvin, Richardson, Caine, all those sort.

(on being typecast) If you look at the careers of people like Anthony Quinn, Cagney, even Tommy Lee Jones, they all were cast as villains. There comes a certain point in your life, in your late 30s, early 40s, when suddenly that can change. Maybe a director sees a glimpse of something else within you along the way. I played comedy in The Goonies, which showed something else was going on. Even when I played the Bond villain in Licence to Kill, there were some people who were rooting for that character ahead of the traditional hero. Now, in Profiler, I get to play Bailey Malone, and I get to show another essence of myself. Stage performances show off multi-varied aspects of an actor, film has always been something else entirely. You always have a prejudice as to what you can and can`t do, but your soul is able to come out more.