With a terrible script you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it`s going to translate easily.

But I will agree that I think that things happen with people in relationships, that you might have been able to enjoy Morocco, say, if you weren`t getting out of a bad marriage. You know what I mean?

I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you`ve done.

I`ve always felt like such an outsider in this industry. Because I`m so insane I guess.

When you have a good script you`re almost in more trouble than when you have a terrible script.

Acting is always a challenge.

If you`re doing a drama that has some comedic elements you can`t forget that it`s primarily a very serious film that has some light relief.

Look, even bad years are pretty good years I think.

The onus is mostly on the director, and the people developing it and the producers and then the cast and crew and everyone else.

I am putting together some ideas for two or three more things I want to do. Maybe a CD of just my kind of standards, which would be Supertramp and Steely Dan covers with an orchestra. I`m deep into old Genesis - I`m sorry, but these are songs that mean something to me. Follow You Follow Me" is a song that`s about something to me." (On his music)

I`ve always been a fella who put most of my eggs in one basket and then take a dump in the basket but I really don`t know.

I read the script for Wonder Boys, and I said that was almost perfect, it was so classy, cool and funny. It`s a really specific thing. We stuck to it, it turned out good and a lot of people liked it.

I think life changes every year. This is just a little more comfortable.

I loved it, it`s such fun. I like that people are seeing it and then talking about it. Like when I took my son and his friends to see Napoleon Dynamite last year, we spent the next six weeks trying to explain it.

I`ve always just shown up and tried to figure out what`s for lunch and am I going to get to play some racquetball that night.

I`m not 40 yet. I wouldn`t even bother comparing myself to Chaplin.

Nothing`s a break for me. Not even the breaks are breaks.

It`s a very smart and heartfelt movie and that`s why, I think, we`re all drawn to it. We really showed up for this with this collective idea that it was really ambitious, but we felt we all really had something to gain from it.

Certain characters are real tough, intricate and multi-faceted, but it`s really confidence building when it`s your words being written.

[on his addiction to drugs]: "It`s like I have a loaded gun in my mouth, and I like the taste of metal."

I was kind of like chasing my tail and trying to do the right thing, and was a little bit stupid. Or irresponsible, which is the same thing I guess. It`s just been really busy and I had a lot of great opportunities.

It was so nice to go into this fake courtroom [on Ally McBeal]. I immediately went up into the judge`s chair. Nice view. A preferable perspective

I think I`ve been lucky, being my frequent appearances on Court TV have brought to me another level than just the actor guy.

The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven.

But I think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang really got that thing where, if a movie reads really funny and then has some dramatic or violent or sinister stuff in it, you can`t forget that primarily it has to be even funnier than you read it or that other stuff doesn`t work.

I`ve become a picky little bitch. I`ve never bothered to plan projects before. I just used to throw the script across the room and say `why do they keep sending me this horseshit?` And then I`d start rehearsels two weeks later.

I think you end up doing the stuff you were supposed to do at the time you were supposed to do it.

I`ve always felt like such an outsider in this industry. Because I`m so insane, I guess.

The higher the stakes, the happier I am, the better I will be.

I`m not used to feeling like I belong where I am.

A lot of my peer group think I`m an eccentric bisexual, like I may even have an ammonia-filled tentacle or something somewhere on my body. That`s okay.

I`ve become a picky little bitch. I`ve never bothered to plan projects before. I just used to throw the script across the room and say, "Why do they keep sending me this horseshit?" And then I`d start rehearsals two weeks later.

[on his addiction to drugs]: It`s like I have a loaded gun in my mouth, and I like the taste of metal.

It`s a blanket statement to say, "That guy`s really sharp and amicable and nice," because there`s a little bit of a--hole in every nice guy, and there`s a little bit of genius in every moron.

am putting together some ideas for two or three more things I want to do. Maybe a CD of just my kind of standards, which would be Supertramp and Steely Dan covers with an orchestra. I`m deep into old Genesis. I`m sorry, but these are songs that mean something to me. "Follow You Follow Me" is a song that`s about something to me.

I know very little about acting. I`m just an incredibly gifted faker.

It was so nice to go into this fake courtroom [on "Ally McBeal" (1997)]. I immediately went up into the judge`s chair. Nice view. A preferable perspective.

What I usually hate about these movies when suddenly the guy that you were digging turns into Dudley Do-Right, and then you`re supposed to buy into all his "Let`s go do some good!" That Eliot Ness-in-a-cape-type thing. What was really important to me was to not have him change so much that he`s unrecognizable. When someone used to be a schmuck and they`re not anymore, hopefully they still have a sense of humor.