Ed Harris Quotes

I listen to National Public Radio, which, to me at least, presents the most rounded view of things.

A lot of films come out before they`re finished.

You can`t betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.

I think most people that are looked upon as doing something daring don`t necessarily think of it that way-they do what they have to do.

(On painter Jackson Pollock): "One thing I learned about Mr. Pollock`s art, which any art student knows I`m sure, but was indeed a revelation to me, is that Jackson fully believed and lived by `don`t use the accident, because I deny the accident`. One cannot even approximate Pollock`s work unless every stroke, every pour, every slap, every fling, every shake, every splash, every splatter and every flick has a specific intention".

Seeing what happens when you rip yourself open is what your job is all about.

If I`m daring at all, I guess it would be emotionally. I try to keep things interesting for myself and to do things that challenge me.

It`s hard to see a film that`s been made from a book that you really loved because it`s such a different experience.

I don`t intentionally choose movies that aren`t going to be successful commercially. It just happens that the most interesting scripts I read are outside the mainstream. I like characters who have an edge to them, who are going to do something unexpected.

I made career decisions that came from the part of me who wanted to shun the limelight.

I chose films made by people I wanted to work with, about subject matter I thought was intriguing.

One of the first things I learned about acting was, the only person you compete against is yourself.

I was very happy playing sports until I was 18, and then there were a couple of years where I really didn`t know what I wanted to do. I saw some theatre in Oklahoma and made a decision to learn about acting. It wasn`t really with an eye on making films or even making a living; it was really about trying to focus on something that had the potential of taking the place of sport in terms of something to penetrate.

I love this country very much, and I`m proud to live here, but I think our current administration is extreme. These are not merely conservative people, these are extreme right-wing people.

I have a tight family group that`s really important to me. I don`t want to work all the time.

When I decided to direct, never having done that before, is something I`m very proud of.

I got in athletics, which gave me self-esteem and made me feel like I had a place in the world; that was the initial attraction with acting for me.

I was this jock playing football and baseball for 20 years and had virtually no aesthetic development.

You can mostly forget ethnic or religious differences. The competition for a bigger share of the oil proceeds is behind much of the fighting.

It`s not like I want to start a career as a director, I just had a particular feeling and I didn`t want to hand the vision over.

When Bush first got elected, the very first time there was talk of going to war with Iraq, the mainstream media gave his position total credibility. I didn`t get it then, and I don`t get it now.

Pollock said several times that he couldn`t separate himself from his art. Not knowing much about modern art when I began to read about him, I was much more his persona - his struggles as a human being - that was interesting to me.

I`ve always wanted to work with Paul Newman. I had a couple opportunities in the past, and I didn`t take advantage of it, so it was really fun to be working with him.

Acting is not a competition to me. One of the first things I learned about acting was, the only person you compete against is yourself.

I like to act with people that know what they`re doing.

As soon as I went on stage, I wanted to do nothing else with my life but act. I always liked the attention that playing sports had brought, but acting fulfilled that need even better.

I am not one of these guys who works job after job after job.

In the past 10 years, I`ve looked at life as this Pollock stuff. And now I`m almost in the post Pollock phase.

You look at a guy like Lance Armstrong, and you have to be inspired. I sat next to Kirk Douglas the other day, and he`s inspiring for fighting through his stroke.

I was concerned about filling my life up with something important to me. To me, it was just necessary.

I had some really dear friends who died from AIDS-one in particular. His family wasn`t around and he didn`t have many friends. I spent a lot of time with him in his later days.

For The Truman Show, I worked for a few weeks, do my gig, then I was done.

You get three hours` sleep and then you start all over again. Relentless. Pre-production was almost harder than filming. I was all over the city every day. It was really exhausting.

There`s always a reaction based on fear. People assume if you`re criticizing a decision to go to war, then you`re saying something against the soldiers-which is not the case.

I feel like my place in this industry is still progressing.

I`m not an activist per se, but I have strong feelings about things. People can jump on celebrities for being ill-informed or naive, but I`ve got a right to say what I believe.

If I started worrying about how my constituents are going to react to every move I make, I wouldn`t be able to do my job here. I`ll do what I think is right and explain it later.