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1. I think you have a social responsibility as the villain, which is pretty different from the hero’s responsibility. If you have any kind of a social or political conscience at all, the first thing you want to do is make malevolence recognizable to people, almost as a kind of teaching aid.
2. We put on shows at Golden Gate Park with the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, and the groups were part of the community they emerged out of, not some superstars. We had multiple stages, diversions, communal entertainment. There is something slightly fascistic about sitting in a huge auditorium focusing all the energy on one group far away on stage.
3. I think the ’60s were an extraordinary time. I feel bad for the kids today who missed this wonderful confluence, which was simultaneously a confluence of the global and the mythological.
4. The first time I read something, I have this special feeling of being fully engaged with it. It’s fresh to the audience because it’s fresh to me. It’s a little mystical, but I really believe that.
5. I’ve always been a writer.
6. Interdependence is a fact, it’s not an opinion.
7. Habitat for wildlife is continually shrinking — I can at least provide a way station.
8. The self is just not a worthy enough vehicle to worship.
9. I think it’s good that people value their bodies and take care of them. I think if you cross the line and begin using your body as an asset or as an extension of your vanity, you’ve gone too far.
10. People call me a movie star. If you’re in the business, a movie star is someone who can make a film bankable. My name and $6 million will make a $6 million movie. I’m a working actor. Because I started late, I had a very short run as a leading man, and my films didn’t make money in America.
11. Writing is something I can do by myself.
12. My house and my garden are built as part of nature, not over it.
13. Acting is the way I make my living.
14. In 2001, Texaco was bought by Chevron, and during deliberations concerning that sale, an 800 page document listing the problems and liabilities connected to Texaco was brought forward at their stockholder meeting by Amazon Watch, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the Amazon.
15. Young people, for whom I should have been a role model and an uncle, duplicated my worst habits and died as a result.
16. When you break the rules and you win, you’re a hero; when you lose, you’re scurrilous.
17. I am fascinated by women. They’re as close as we men get to experiencing ‘the other.’ The challenge for me was to know and accept fully formed, powerful women.
18. When I got to Grinnell College, I was part of the black turtleneck sweater and Camel cigarette crowd of poets and writers.
19. My gift seems to be that I am able to tell a story in a comprehensible and engaging way.
20. In 1972, Texaco Oil Company, in partnership with PetroEcuador, the state-run oil company of Ecuador, began to drill for oil in the jungles of the Ecuadorian Amazon.