I was offered the Gene Hackman role in 'The Poseidon Adventure' four times, and I turned it down four times. I didn't want to do that movie. I called it the upside down boat.

I'm certainly not going to play any of Matt Damon's roles in the future. But he will eventually grow into mine, since he'll be around for a long time.

If I were a writer, the Pulitzer Prize would be important to me. This is my profession, so an Oscar is important.

In film, there are always things that could conceivably create artificiality in any performance.

One of the things I am most proud of is refusing to serve in the military when drafted during the Vietnam War.

The works I made at the start of my career rely on the themes of war, atomic power, and outer space.

Bad as was being shot by some of our own troops in the battle of the Wilderness, - that was an honest mistake, one of the accidents of war, - being shot at, since the war, by many officers, was worse.

The progressive movement against the war of occupation in Iraq is a reason for hope, as is resistance to free trade agreements in Latin America. Those are moments that we have to celebrate: that people still find the resolve and energy to resist.