Pastoral Resources

It's that kind of in-born music thing - I could pick up the guitar and play something. It's not something I consciously do.

I rented a house, recorded the stuff in a house. Just took my time 'cuz sometimes it's just rush, rush, rush. I just wanna live and play music.

I don't care what you play, where you're from, who you produce. It depends on what you're doing when you're with me. That's what counts. I don't pre-judge anything or anybody.

Our swords shall play the orators for us.

So I think we got together as the Academy to give ourselves that sort of responsibility and to play well.

I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.

We played it as long as we could play it on that CD and I think it might be 50 minutes, maybe. What you have to do is play a couple of songs and then get off the stage because everything that trails it sounds stupid.

The whole point is, give me a break with the standards. You go to the average jazz label and suggest a record and they want to know which standards you're going to play. I'm saying let's break the formula.

I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.

When I first came to New York everybody on the scene would treat me like I could play, but I couldn't.

Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.

I have friends who are leading men, and they're only ever allowed to play leading men of a certain type. But as a character actor, there's a wider variety of projects available. On the big Hollywood films, all they care about is having their lead in place, so it's actually easier for someone like me to slip in. And I'm happy to do so.

When I edit, I'm not from the school of Hello, I'm a genius, so everybody shut up. I'm from the school of Let's play it once in front of an audience, and then I'll tell you where it is going.

I really believed that if I could play that character, who is grounded in the earth and the history of the United States - not the kind of role I usually play - it would help me change the perception out there and my own perception of what I can accomplish as a performer.

I used to play sports. Then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I am good at everything.

You go to work, tape five shows in one day and then go home and play golf for the rest of the week and then start the week all over. I thought if something like that came along, I'd love to do that.

I just try to do what I have to do and let the people out there do what they have to do, which is have fun, scream, yell and jump around. I try to do what I have to do, which is play baseball, and I can only play in that piece of area there, so that's what I try to do.

I can't wait to front my band with these new songs and play for fans, but I've decided to keep my day job too.

I didn't like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions - the curtain was up.

The complexity of the emotional life of the play is what you live to work on.