In order to have understanding, you need forgiveness, compassion, and empathy.

On 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' I spent two or three months learning how to ride a motorcycle. I wasn't really riding the motorcycle in 98 percent of the movie, but the shots of me getting on and off had to look like I had been doing it for years and years.

I never do anything for the camera. It's my job to pretend the camera's not there. I'm never moving for the camera.

I've done jobs where I thought, 'I don't want to be that kind of actor; I don't want to work on something with people who don't have the same kind of goal as I do.'

Also, after people play these Sim games, it tends to change their perception of the world around them, so they see their city, house or family in a slightly different way after playing.

When I was living in the Dominican Republic, the local kids became a part of my family.

No one in my family was a reader of literary fiction. So, I didn't have encouragement, but I didn't have discouragement, because I don't think anybody knew what that meant.

My ancestors are Highland Scots, and my father's home in north Alabama is so much like northwest Arkansas. I have the same allergies in both places.