James Woods

Sourced

• Here's what I believe a soul is — at least this, I believe it's at least this. I believe that every kindness that we create in our lives, if it came because we were affected by a person we loved and lost, that person lives through that kindness. That's what a soul is.
  • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11 September 2006

• In a world where there is enlightenment, intelligence, kindness, awareness of others' needs and others' well-being, there is no terrorism. And in a world of viciousness and narrow-mindedness and only one way, there will be terrorism. Our challenge, in our country, is to find a way to disagree amongst ourselves without being so awful about it.
  • The Tonight Show, 11 September 2006

Unsourced

• Reading for a part is very important, actually. There's this sort of agency mentality: If you're a big star, they should offer you a lot of money, and then you deign to read the script. Except — and this is sort of a big secret around town — no matter how big a star is, when you want a part and you ain't gettin' offered it, you find a way to sort of make yourself available.

• I always have a rule that acting is acting and truth is truth and you just go out there and you do it. But what happens in each medium is that you have other responsibilities. The acting remains the same, but each medium dictates assuming other halves to make the acting work. When I'm working on a film, I just play the absolute purity of the moments. I don't worry about the pacing, because the pacing is going to be dictated by the director and the editor. On the stage I have to give pacing to the play. As an actor, you, in fact, become the editor of the piece, in terms of the timing. You are required to engineer the pace yourself. In television, everything is in so close, that you realize that most of what you do has to register in your thought process.

• Robert Redford understands film acting better than anybody on the face on the earth. You know how some carnivores get every bit of meat off of a carcass they can? Well, there's nobody who gets as much blood out of a moment as Redford.

• My nightmare in life, my absolute fundamental, overwhelming, egregious nightmare, is Bill Gates' vision of the future, where there will be a video camera on every corner and every conversation will be recorded. Man, I'd rather put a pitchfork in my eyes than live in a world like that.

• I love George Bush right now — and I always have! I'm the only guy in L.A. who voted for him.
  • January 2002

• I listen to these feminists rave about, "How dare they attack Bill Clinton for having a little consensual sex act", but went nuts because Clarence Thomas allegedly made a joke about a Coke can.