Brad Pitt

I don't think I was all that late in becoming a father.

The best moments can't be preconceived. I've spent a lot of time in editing rooms, and a scene can be technically perfect, with perfect delivery and facial expression and timing, and you remember all your lines, and it is dead.

I'd say that 'Tree of Life' is not a Christian so much as a spiritual film.

Listen, I've been pretty fortunate. And if I've been underrated, it's actually been something I've been able to work with; I can surprise people. It sets me up to exceed expectations, so I don't mind.

When I first got out to Hollywood, they were pushing me for sitcoms, and I didn't really have an interest in them. I wanted to do films and slowly worked that way. And then it became, I guess, this curse of the leading man.

I'm actually very snobbish about directors. I have to say 'no' all the time. 'No' is the most powerful word in our business. You've got to protect yourself.

If I'm gonna spend however long it takes to make a movie, give up 14 hours a day for however many weeks or months, then it's very important for me to know that I'm working with people who I respect and enjoy and that we're going for something together.

I've worked with some really great directors, and I'm really choosy about them because they're telling the story at the end of the day.

To leave home, it's got to be worth leaving.

I'm sure they're saddened by me, and I get frustrated with them. But I love them, and at the end of the day if they need me or if they need anything, I'm there for them. Family.

It might be a very human thing across the board, but we, in America, love a story - we need a story to get involved in. But then everything becomes more about how the story protects a certain perception as we pick sides.

If I'm going to work, I want to work with my wife.

We sometimes let ourselves be rated too much by others - we put so much emphasis on a paycheck or what a magazine says.

So much of making movies is about discovery on the day, what you're figuring out. If you know everything going in, then it's not worth doing - it's already done.

The Internet has done a wonderful thing for us. But democracy doesn't work unless people are well informed, and I don't know that we are. People just don't have the time.

I see religion more as a truck stop on your way to figuring out who you are.

How many stories have you read that aren't true, stories about me and Angie being married or fighting or splitting up? And when we don't split up, there's a whole new round that we've made up and we're back together again!

I die really well, by the way. It's one of my strong points. I just take a bullet well.

I had a very supportive family environment that gave me room to explore and discover things about myself.

In some ways, I'm still a kid from Missouri and Oklahoma, and I'm trying to find my way.