Quotes by Ed Harris

• It's hard to see a film that's been made from a book that you really loved because it's such a different experience.
• I like to act with people that know what they're doing.
• Pollock said several times that he couldn't separate himself from his art. Not knowing much about modern art when I began to read about him, I was much more his persona - his struggles as a human being - that was interesting to me.
• I am not one of these guys who works job after job after job.
• There's always a reaction based on fear. People assume if you're criticizing a decision to go to war, then you're saying something against the soldiers-which is not the case.
• For The Truman Show, I worked for a few weeks, do my gig, then I was done.
• I chose films made by people I wanted to work with, about subject matter I thought was intriguing.
• I feel like my place in this industry is still progressing.
• I have a tight family group that's really important to me. I don't want to work all the time.
• I listen to National Public Radio, which, to me at least, presents the most rounded view of things.
• I love this country very much, and I'm proud to live here, but I think our current administration is extreme. These are not merely conservative people, these are extreme right-wing people.
• I made career decisions that came from the part of me who wanted to shun the limelight.
• In the past 10 years, I've looked at life as this Pollock stuff. And now I'm almost in the post Pollock phase.
• I had some really dear friends who died from AIDS-one in particular. His family wasn't around and he didn't have many friends. I spent a lot of time with him in his later days.
• A lot of films come out before they're finished.
• I think most people that are looked upon as doing something daring don't necessarily think of it that way-they do what they have to do.
• If I'm daring at all, I guess it would be emotionally. I try to keep things interesting for myself and to do things that challenge me.
• If I started worrying about how my constituents are going to react to every move I make, I wouldn't be able to do my job here. I'll do what I think is right and explain it later.
• I've always wanted to work with Paul Newman. I had a couple opportunities in the past, and I didn't take advantage of it, so it was really fun to be working with him.
• I'm not an activist per se, but I have strong feelings about things. People can jump on celebrities for being ill-informed or naive, but I've got a right to say what I believe.
• I was concerned about filling my life up with something important to me. To me, it was just necessary.
• One of the first things I learned about acting was, the only person you compete against is yourself.
• You can't betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.
• You look at a guy like Lance Armstrong, and you have to be inspired. I sat next to Kirk Douglas the other day, and he's inspiring for fighting through his stroke.
• You get three hours' sleep and then you start all over again. Relentless. Pre-production was almost harder than filming. I was all over the city every day. It was really exhausting.
• You can mostly forget ethnic or religious differences. The competition for a bigger share of the oil proceeds is behind much of the fighting.
• When Bush first got elected, the very first time there was talk of going to war with Iraq, the mainstream media gave his position total credibility. I didn't get it then, and I don't get it now.
• When I decided to direct, never having done that before, is something I'm very proud of.