"Me and hats? ...I don't know, maybe I just read too much Dr. Suess as a kid."

"Drugs are no escape. There are other ways of escaping, like books, painting and writing."

"It's OK to be different, that it's good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgement on someone who looks different, believes differnt, talks different, is a different colur."

"I think the thing to do is enjoy the ride while you're on it."

"You use your money to buy privacy because during most of your life you aren't allowed to be normal."

"There's no reason to be otherwise...I think that the kids that come around, it's so nice to meet them. For all intents and purposes they're my boss, they keep me employed." 

"Ed Wood was an extraordinary character. A cannonball, a lightning strength coming, from the darkness and rushing at full speed toward the light to the point of burning itself. I loved portraying this guy who sees everybody getting into a panic around him, and has just a thought: "I don't give a shit." For the Gilbert Grape release, I had come to Paris and lived in the Ritz hotel. I got ready in the same time for Ed Wood and so, I experimented with how it was to live and sleep with woman's underwears: panties, underskirt, high heels. One morning, I wake up and I phone the room-service and ordered a coffee. I hang up and go back to half sleep. Five minutes later, a waiter rings at the door. I'm going to open and I see a guy who looks ghastly at seeing me: I've realized that I was stripped to the waist, I wore a silk underskirt and high heels shoes! The guy was very uncomfortable, he laid the tray down and ran away trying to act as if he had seen nothing."

"I don't pretend to be captain weird. I just do what I do."

"One of the most incredible moments I've ever had was sitting in Vincent [Price]'s trailer...I was showing him this first-edition book I have of the complete works of Poe--with really amazing illustrations. Vincent was going nuts over the drawings, and he started talking about The Tomb of Ligeia. Then he closed the book and began to recite it to me in this beautiful voice, filling the room with huge sounds. Such passion! I looked in the book later, and it was verbatim. Word perfect. It was a great moment. I'll never forget that." 

"Am I a romantic? I've seen Wuthering Heights ten times. I'm a romantic."

"With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying."

"Life's pretty good, and why wouldnt it be? I'm a pirate, after all."

"The whole idea of being Don Juan is so foreign to me that it's funny. Here's a man who says, 'I am the world's greatest lover' to every woman he meets, and he really means it. He believes it. I could never go up to a woman and say anything like that. I just couldn't [laughs]."

"Fame, celebrity--it's not such a big deal in Europe. People seem to understand that you just have a weird job. They're not running after you, trying to carve chunks out of you. It's strange in the states. Most fans here are great, but there's a handful who have seen the movies and feel they know you. They think it's alright to touch you and ask personal questions."

"For me, ambition has become a dirty word. I prefer hunger. To be hungry-great. To have hopes, dreams-great."

"France, and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing though is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it. I'm afraid that the American culture is a disaster."

"I am doing things that are true to me. The only thing I have a problem with is being labeled."

"I don't speak French at all, but I can say "The peanut is in my belly button" in French. I think it's good to learn absurd things in different languages. If I meet someone who barely speaks English, I love to teach them the most obtuse things, like "Eat my shorts." In German I can say, "My father's a bullfighter" and "I am a watermelon." That stuff amuses me."

"I think one of the greatest gifts that we as humans have is our instinct, is that initial feeling you get about something. I think that it is a great gift, and sometimes we overlook it."

"I'm not sure I'm adult yet."