Paul Dano

It's a funny thing. You sort of never figure it out with acting. You're always learning.

I don't want my learning curve to be stunted by just all of a sudden doing work all the time and not being careful about the work that I'm doing.

At the heart of drama is conflict.

In tragedy, it's hard to find a good resolution; it's not black and white: it's a big fog of gray.

I don't like to spend a lot of money on haircuts: I'll sometimes grow my hair and get an acting job and get them to cut it for free. I think for a lady, though, it's okay to spend a lot on a haircut.

My first paying job might have been doing a play, actually. My mom paid me to dress up as a flounder at my sister's 'Little Mermaid' - themed birthday party when I was little.

I feel like, once you're doing a job, you shouldn't talk about it.

In 'There Will Be Blood,' my character was someone who was an actor himself almost. He had a rehearsed quality about him. He was a performance artist in a way.

Homeless people really upset me when I was little. A lot of kids have this reaction, but I would get really worried or sad or concerned or cry.

Being actors is a strange job.

Little Miss Sunshine' was really important to me.

It's a lot of fun to be a part of films that you don't exactly know how they're going to turn out.