William Hurt

I am constantly asked, 'What's the difference between acting in the theater and acting in film?' The only answer I can give is the space - you adapt to the space. But acting is acting.

When you are a kid, you are beset by fears, and you think, 'I'll solve the fear by living forever and becoming a movie star.'

Rage with panache.

For as privileged an actor as I have been, TV as a standard is short shrift. They have to do it so quickly that they don't stop and take a look. They just shoot. So that's one of the reasons I typically stay away from it. I think art is an act of consideration, and if you're not considering, I don't think you're really doing mankind a favor.

You get older, and people start passing away. And so if you're lucky - my mom died very young, for instance, and I have friends who died very young - but the point being that, I think if you're awake, you know you're going to pass on. And that the real treasure in life is the long term - relationships that you really value.

Every single second of extra time to work with other actors has definitely always, for me, paid off for the film. For the project. Every single extra heartbeat you could get, mutually considering the scene, was of benefit.

My greatest offering is my concept. It isn't my face.

I don't have any artifacts of my profession in my house; the Oscar is in storage.

I was very lucky when I was a kid - I travelled a lot and spent a lot of time in Africa, Asia and Europe. I also chant in Sanskrit.

The funnel of deep feeling and profound satisfaction in life comes from the capacity to feel.

We'd like to prearrange our life on all levels. We'd prefer it to be scripted. But it's not.

You cut off the capacity for grief in your life, and you cut off the joy at the same time. They both come up through the same tunnel. You don't have one without the other.

I was held hostage and almost executed by a man who was robbing us in the middle of the night.

Sometimes people call me a success for all the reasons that make me think I'm a failure.

The perfection in theater is that it's over the second it's done.

I think acting can bring you closer to yourself and help you understand other people.

What's really frustrating with movies is the lack of improvement.

I listen to XM radio because I can get so many overseas news stations.

I demand minimal for paid rehearsal and not always six weeks either.

The thing is, I don't believe in most of what's done. The amount of financial and imaginative energy that's put into mediocrity is just amazing which I find to be fundamentally offensive as a human being.