People don't know who I am. Some people don't know I do standup. They just write that I'm that guy from those failed sitcoms. I always joke that 'I've never heard of me either.'

Famous people come up to me, but I don't know who they are because my sight is so bad. It's always at the pool of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills when I don't have my lenses in and my glasses are in my room. … With the number of people I ignore, I'm lucky I work at all in this town.

Most successful people are people you’ve never heard of. They want it that way. It keeps them sober. It helps them do their jobs.

It's funny. People come to my house because I was recommended to them to do some writing. They've never heard of me, and you can see the reticence written all over their faces. Then they look at the walls and see the platinum and gold albums and they say, "Oh. That one's from Prince! That's from Robert Palmer! Oh my God, Paul McCartney!" And then they say, "You're a really fine composer"--without having heard any of my music.

Ah, I got to learn a lot! They have already been in the field for more than 20 years; they obviously know a lot more than I do. And not only did I learn stuffs about movies while working with them, but also understand other areas like dealing with the media, interacting with them… everything! I admit, I get overshadowed by them sometimes but then rather than a disadvantage, I like to think of it as an advantage to stay in the sideline and absorb what I can from them. After all, they are the superstars!

I think a lot of directors, they come out of film school, they don't know anything about acting. Or they're writers that don't know anything about the process. And I think they're afraid sometimes to talk to actors and be honest with actors.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it

I have this sort of weird thing where people know me from one [project] and then think I've never worked again. And they'll say, "Do you ever think about acting? Do you think about acting again?"

I haven't the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.

Americans just don't know what being a movie star's all about.

A lot of people who are in the movie business don't really know much about movies, and they certainly don't know movie history. You have to even find a code when you're talking to these people—you can't use the references that you would use when talking to somebody who knows movie history. When you go in to pitch something, it depends what you invoke. You can't invoke anything really before 1980 with these people because they don't know what you're talking about. It's limiting. They get annoyed. They get offended that you are somehow trying to expose the fact that they don't know things, and make them feel inadequate. Which is of course not the point, or why you do it.

I think they find it — they find me quite confusing, because — they know the music, but they don't know anything about me ... because I keep a very private lifestyle so they end up ... making up stories as such. But I don't really concern myself too much about them.

Get the right actor, and the job's halfway done. I've only miscast major people twice in my life – out of respect to them, I won't tell you who. After a couple of days' shooting, I had to tell them I was letting them go. It was hideous.

I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.