
"We didn't have enough money -- we shot it for under $5 million. We did not have enough time -- we shot it in 28 days. We did have enough food on the set, but we couldn't eat it." -- Matthew McConaughey, "Dallas Buyers Club"

"Dallas Buyers Club" star Matthew McConaughey

McConaughey

McConaughey

McConaughey

"I made out with Meryl Streep -- not necessarily her choice, I took her by surprise. I made some young girls, and some over 40 girls, laugh with some chick flicks. I sparred with Betty White. And I've flown into space. I've had a pretty good life and a pretty good career." -- Sandra Bullock, "Gravity" (with Gena Rowlands)

"Gravity" star Sandra Bullock with Gena Rowlands

Bullock and Rowlands

"I spent one night on Robben Island, and in the morning I came out thinking about vengeance. Mr. Mandela spent 19 years there and come out full of forgiveness." -- Idris Elba, "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"

Idris Elba, star of "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"

Elba

Elba

"I'm an actor -- that's all I am. I'm not a producer, I'm not a director. I just come to work every day with an actor's anxiety -- sizable, as anybody knows who's worked with me. And I lay into the work with an actor's appetite." -- Meryl Streep, "August: Osage County"

Meryl Streep, star of "August: Osage County"

Streep

Steep

Streep

"When we met on that first read-through, it was like the first day of rehearsing a play." -- Ewan McGregor, "August: Osage County"

"August: Osage County" actor Ewan McGregor

McGregor

"Steve, you entrusted me with a role that required me to bare myself to great pain. But I didn't suffer while doing it, because you created a family of artists in Louisiana, and through your passionate vision, we were able to realize something bigger than all of us." -- "12 Years a Slave" star Lupita Nyong'o (with Alfre Woodard, Chiwetel Ejiofor and director Steve McQueen)

"12 Years a Slave" stars Alfre Woodard, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o and director Steve McQueen

Woodard, Ejiofor, Nyong'o and McQueen

"This odd thing happens in movies where you're in this huge space and there's trucks and cables, but eventually it comes down to this very specific focus of eyeballs." -- Tom Hanks, "Captain Phillips" and "Saving Mr. Banks"

"Captain Phillips" and "Saving Mr. Banks" star Tom Hanks.

Hanks

Hanks

"Actors want to go to a place that's scary and vulnerable, and that they don't really think they can pull off. David is always standing there saying, 'Jump. Just jump, I've got you.' That's a blessing that actors dream of." -- Bradley Cooper, "American Hustle" (with director David O. Russell)

"American Hustle" director David O. Russell and star Bradley Cooper

Russell and Cooper

"We do understand that people find it insufferable when artists stray out of their box. But for a lot of us, that is the definition of being an artist: straying out of your box." -- Bono, "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" (with the Edge)

The Edge and Bono

The Edge and Bono from U2

"The Grandmaster" director Wong Kar Wai

Wong Kar Wai

Wong Kar Wai

"What makes cinema so attractive, so fascinating, is because it's not a 1+1 process. It's chemistry between sound, words, ideas and images." -- Wong Kar Wai, "The Grandmaster"

"Nebraska" star Bruce Dern

Bern

"I'm a guy, when they say, 'Come on down,' I don't walk down. I run." -- Bruce Dern, "Nebraska"

"Philomena" star and writer Steve Coogan

"I thought, 'I'll write myself a good role.' It came out of the frustration of being typecast as much as it did wanting to tell the story." -- Steve Coogan, "Philomena"

Coogan

"You just poke and stab at it until you find something that works. And then you ask yourself why it works and go from there." -- Thomas Newman, "Saving Mr. Banks"

"Saving Mr. Banks" composer Thomas Newman

Newman

"12 Years a Slave" star Lupita Nyong'o

Nyong'o

"Saving Mr. Banks" director John Lee Hancock

Hancock