CAMPBELL SCOTT

In the editing room, 20 percent of the time you're using stuff from before the actor knew the camera was rolling or you're taking a line from somewhere else and putting it in his mouth.

After I directed, when I went back to being an actor, I was like, 'God, this is the life!' Because you only have to concentrate on one thing.

The nightmare of a film career, or at least the challenge of one, is that you're rarely going to get the opportunity to explore character because once people see you in one thing, you know, they want to see that again.

Part of the advantage, and part of the result of trying to be a producer and director, are the practical things, you find. It's so advantageous to go to a place that you already have a feel for, a literal and spiritual familiarity.

I learned, especially from my mother, to respect the profession and take it seriously, but not take yourself too seriously.

You can't, no matter what anyone says, build a movie around someone.

If you're playing a good guy, you show some darkness. If you're playing a dark guy, you show something different, like humor, that will mix it up and hopefully surpass the audience's expectations. What I'm battling all the time is complacency in the audience. I try to bring a little mystery to what might happen because that engages people more.

Working hard is great, being lazy sometimes is great, but failed potential is the worst.

There's no doubt in the world that directing makes you a better actor. Me, anyway. There's no doubt in the world that it makes me a more collaborative actor.

I'm not always angry. In fact, I think I usually go out of my way to try to find roles that don't seem to be like me.

Details are the only thing that separates one movie from another.

I always consider Shakespeare like a huge room. I mean, you open the door, and you can go anywhere.

Practically, I am interested in television because it keeps me home and it's fast, and I exist in independent films mostly, and you don't get paid for those, or you don't get paid enough.

I just got sick of not being able to raise money for a movie - that's what happens, so I just made my own.

The reason I got into acting was not to explore myself. I was a reader, I didn't care about acting. I got into it in college, but I had no interest really in that, in getting up in front of anybody.

Everybody loves a villain - let's face it.

I think people tend to live, whether they like it or not, influenced by what's next door to them.

I'm not a big one for lots of genitals flapping in the films.

I love that I'm rarely recognized. I like it because I know I can look different from film to film.

Actors aren't all the same. They have very different skills. There are actors of intellect who are very thoughtful about everything they do... and then there are actors of instinct who don't know what they're doing until the cameras roll... My father was actually quite thoughtful about what he did, while my mother was much more instinctual.

To me, it's just like, if you have talent, and you're lucky enough to find where you fit, and you work with the right people, it's not exalted at all.

I make little movies, you know, they need all the help that they can get.

Television and cable have become the new independent films, in a sense, for writers and actors to gravitate towards. That's why I like short films, too; I love doing readings, audio books, working with young filmmakers; anything that keeps you from getting blase about yourself or in a rut.

I just wanna get to the end of the day without it raining.

In the film world, and I know this from just talking to other people, that I'm known as a kind of dramatic, serious, almost humorless actor, and the fact is I'm a funny guy, and I spend most of my life trying to find a lighter side of things and on stage was given plenty of opportunity to do that.