
“I was very nervous, because nobody had ever given me the opportunity to do something like this before. I thought, 'I don't know if I can do it -- and I know that if it's David O. Russell directing, I can't fake it.’” -- Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"

“When you’re on a film set, you’re doing something exactly like they did it in 1942 when they made 'Casablanca.' The only thing that’s changed is the size of the lapels. And that makes me nervous, because I don’t want the movie business to go away.” — Ben Affleck (with Alan Arkin and Bryan Cranston), 'Argo'

“Acting for me has always been about finding the precious moments when I feel totally and sometimes dangerously alive. It hasn't always been easy, but you know what? Easy is overrated.” -- Sally Field, "Lincoln"

“I had a feeling after 'The King's Speech' that when the industry gives you that kind of acknowledgement, you should use it to take a risk or stretch yourself. Don’t do the same kind of movie.” -- Tom Hooper (with Eddie Redmayne), "Les Misérables"

“I thought it spoke volumes that Patricia Hitchcock, the daughter of an incredibly famous man, wrote one book about her family, and she wrote it about her mother. It was a good one for the women.” -- Helen Mirren, "Hitchcock"

“John and I looked at each other at the wrap party and went, 'What just happened?' We were total strangers and it was all pretend, but something wild happened and we were able to do right by this beautiful story.” -- Helen Hunt (with John Hawkes), 'The Sessions'

“I’m full of self-doubt from day to day, and given a crisis I fall apart. So I didn’t understand how (the real-life tsunami survivor she played) could be so sure. I want to get to that place, but I don’t want to go through a tsunami to do it.” -- Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

“Naomi has made '21 Grams,' 'Mulholland Drive,' 'King Kong,' 'Eastern Promises' …Of all those films, I can only vouch for 'King Kong.' I want to see 'Mulholland Drive,' but my dad keeps telling me I can’t.” -- Tom Holland, "The Impossible"

“When I started making movies, every studio had four or five Sidney Lumet-type movies: smart, well-written, character-driven, dealing with things in our world. It’s much more difficult for those films to be made now.” -- Richard Gere, "Arbitrage"

“In the past, I would have shot a stairwell scene on a set we’d built, but on 'Flight' we didn’t have enough money for that. It really brought me back to my film-school experience.” -- Robert Zemeckis, "Flight"