“A little-known secret is that being a pro athlete is not that great. It's a pretty short lifespan. I know all these parents are out there driving their children to be professionals, but so many pros will tell you, 'No, you don't want to do this.'”

“A lot of actors, we aren't that special; you get a well-written scene, and it's virtually actor-proof.”

“A rice cooker has changed my life. The overnight-oatmeal deal is a big win at the Olyphant house.”

“As far as the leading man/romantic lead, I'll tell you what, I really enjoyed my experience more than I thought or imagined I would on 'Catch and Release.' God bless them if they want to give me another shot at that. I would love to have that as something I can go to on occasion.”

“At the end of the day, the job is to tell the story that you promised to tell and do it in the most entertaining and perhaps surprising way you can think of.”

“Being an actor: that's a pretty big net. That's a big playing field. The Screen Actors' Guild is filled with many, many, many, many people and vastly different careers.”

“Directing? It's an appealing thought, but as far as I can tell, it's a lot of work. Producing is easier. You can tell someone else what to do and then go home.”

“Honestly, I feel like I spent the last 10 years just trying to work, just get my hands on the best material I could. I'd like to say that it was quite calculated and genius, my ability to take one step forward and two steps back.”

“I can't root for the Lakers. I grew up in northern California, so I spent many of my young adult years rooting against the Lakers.”

“I didn't inherit any great success and the problems that came with it, and yet I was able to keep working and supporting myself and later a family. I'm crazy fortunate.”

“I don't get recognized that much. That's the best part of it. I tend to get things like, 'You sound a lot like that guy on 'Deadwood.' And that's lovely. I've been very fortunate. No giggling, screaming girls. None of that.”

“I had a Dan Fouts Nike poster with 'The Bomb Squad' on my wall as a kid. I was also a huge Larry Bird fan. One of my proudest art achievements is a papier-mache eagle decked out head-to-toe in Celtics gear.”

“I hate to tell you, but racism is alive and well in a lot of parts of the world.”

“I know the difference between someone coming up to you on the street and saying, 'Hey, you're that dude, right. Yes, that's what I thought,' and somebody coming up and saying, 'Big fan of the show. Big fan of that character.' And that's nice. You're out there telling stories, you're hoping to find an audience, and it's very appreciated.”

“I punch a lot of guys on set. It's much easier than in real life as your hands don't hurt afterwards. The key is that you miss.”

“I remember years ago being on the set of 'Dreamcatcher' and not only did I have such great admiration for Morgan Freeman and was just thrilled to be around him, I was struck by the fact that he seemed to be having perhaps more fun than I was at his job. And I thought, 'Well, that's very promising.'”

“I think at this point in my life, I'd like to play more good guys than bad guys.”

“I think that always, as an actor, I don't want to overstep or pretend that I'm doing anything more than I'm doing.”

“I trust that I know a good part when I see one, and usually, when I see one, I have to wait for seven people to pass in order for me to get it.”

“I was a Fine Art major. You do a bit of everything until the final year, when you specialise. I did pencil drawing and sculpture. It's a pretty well-rounded fine art education. I thought that it was viable option to make a living out of art. I'm not sure if I was thinking realistically; maybe I never was. But it had great appeal.”

“I'd like to think I'm a little more easygoing than the character on 'Deadwood,' without question.”

“If Martin Scorsese calls, I am available. And then there the ones, well, you can just run down the list - any of those Oscar-nominated films, they have amazing directors across the board.”

“If you're at a restaurant and someone asks, 'Fresh pepper?,' the answer is yes. When people shake off the fresh pepper, they clearly have no interest in living a full life. Same thing goes for grated Parmesan. Why would you turn that down?”

“I'll admit a little something: If I go to one of those hotels where there's, like, a USD50 omelet, I'm taking the silverware home with me. I'm not saying it's right. I just feel like it's an unspoken agreement where the mug and the silverware are just part of the deal.”

“I'm attracted to roles that are unpredictable, and if I can get my hands on something like that, I'm thrilled. I like performances where you don't know what's coming, moment to moment.”

“I'm in show business, and we have a long history here of making movies about law enforcement officers. If you're my age, and you're male, and you're trying to get work, you're going to run into those roles as opposed to having a long run of playing dancers.”

“It's changed throughout the years, but at one time I was a really big bubble gum ice cream fan. I'd spit the bubble gum pieces in a cup and then collect them.”

“It's easy to be quick on the draw when no one has got real bullets.”

“It's fun when your kids reach a point where you can actually start talking about things.”

“It's great if a pilot starts off great and if it doesn't start off so great it's not that big a deal: everybody's baby is born ugly. But you want to know, if given the opportunity: Where are we going? What's the story we're trying to tell?”

“It's very rare that you can be in a career for as long as I have and still feel like you're constantly learning and coming at it from an almost childlike perspective.”

“I've always sort of admired and respected one's ability to be comfortable with other people's discomfort or, you know, their being comfortable making other people uncomfortable.”

“I've had lots of parts in movies that I've never seen. I mean no disrespect to them. It was really fun to go act, but I'm not calling my friends and saying, 'I couldn't be more proud of this picture. You should go see it.'”

“I've taken a milk-art class; I can put a heart on top of the cappuccino. I'm very proud of that.”

“Larry Kasdan has made some of my favorite movies of all time so just to be working with him was a pleasure. Now that I have, I not only respect his work but I just love and respect him as a person.”

“My roles don't centre around drugs at all! Shadiness is different - it's drama. We're making movies! You've gotta have conflict.”

“My survival skills are very good for Hollywood. Beyond that, I'm not really sure.”

“On 'Justified', we're driving all around Southern California trying to find a location that we can call Kentucky.”

“People love to be scared. I guess it's a primal deal.”

“Sharks will scare me. I went out to Malibu a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful, clear day, out in five feet of water, going to surf, and there was this big ol' freakin' leopard shark... I'm looking at him and I'm thinking, 'OK, he won't hurt me.'”

“Sometimes, people aren't as consciously aware of their decisions as they should be.”

“The basic thing a man should know is how to change a tyre and how to drive a tractor. Whatever that bearded dude is doing on the Dos Equis beer commercials sets the bar. That's your guy. Every man should be aiming to be like him. The beard is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“The challenge in any kind of storytelling, as far as I know, it is, you're looking for the moment that is completely unexpected, but at the same time, you think to yourself, 'Of course, that's the only way it could have gone.' It has to feel like it's the truth of it.”

“The last time I was in a Marshals' office, they had a poster of 'Justified' up. I asked them, 'Did you know I was coming by, so you put up a poster of the show?' And they said, 'Oh, we all love it... you guys make us look good.' I thought, this is great. If they like it, we really did something here.”

“The only time we got sugary cereal was when my mom went away for the weekend and she bought us Frosted Flakes because she wanted us to behave. Otherwise, we were eating shredded wheat, granola, or Grape Nuts.”

“There's not much to do in Atlanta, so the cast went to the gym together, went shopping together, and dinner was always a group thing. It's that whole summer-camp experience that making movies tends to be anyway.”

“There's so many great Western films. Let's see, 'Red River,' any of those Henry Fonda movies are fantastic. Any of those John Ford movies are fantastic. I love all the Eastwood 'Man With No Name' movies, John Wayne, 'True Grit.'”

“Um, accidents happen. Especially if there's a co-star that you're not that fond of - you might 'accidentally' deck him. But no, I'm a professional. I'm just saying that can happen.”

“Usually, in romantic comedies, you end up sacrificing a great deal of the complexity - you know, just two attractive people and a good soundtrack.”

“What am I going to wear to the Emmys? Something with a tie.”

“You know, after filming the movie the book was still just as big. I think it was actually bigger. I think Stephen King went back and wrote extra pages. He's fantastic.”

“You know, what a producer does is one of the great mysteries in life, so anyone can be one.”