I've been around for so long, people have their perceptions of me: good, bad or indifferent.
— Rob Lowe
I like all of John Carpenter's movies. 'The Thing' is my favorite.
Children change you. They really do.
It's a little bit of a 'if you can't beat 'em - join 'em' mentality for me when I think about Twitter.
In my bachelor days, the priority wasn't learning to cook.
Marriage is becoming sort of fake. It's almost like a handbag. Everybody wants the newest, greatest and latest. It becomes an event, and it's definitely a status symbol in our society. I'm not saying it shouldn't be; it absolutely should be - but you shouldn't be focusing on that.
In acting, there's a type of courage you're recognized for all the time. You lose 100 pounds and play a guy with AIDS, and you get rewarded. But, in life, doing what is courageous is quiet, and no one knows about it. Courage is someone making sacrifices for their family or making selfless decisions for what they hope or feel.
For me, the battle is finding the balance between wanting to spend time with my boys and then having enough perspective to still be the disciplinarian and, like, not be in the best friend business.
Every relationship has its complications.
I had had some successes in the '90s, always made money, but the truth was I was like a man pushing a boulder up a hill. A huge, heavy, difficult boulder made up of some career mistakes, projects that didn't meet expectations, and twenty years of being a known quantity.
As a person navigating the waters of public scrutiny, you are often unable to hold on to personal heroes or villains. Inevitably you will meet your hero, and he may turn out to be less than impressive, while your villain turns out to be the coolest cat you've ever met.
In spite of being professionally gregarious, in my nonpaid hours I'm a bit of a hermit. After being around a crew of fifty people for twelve hours a day on a film set, I really like my alone time, and as always, I abhor small talk.
I try to be authentically who I am.
I always like stories where the egg ends up on my face.
I'll never forget one of those things that my father said to me. My father said: 'You know what? We have had so many amazingly positive experiences that we would have never had because you're famous. We can stand to have a couple negatives ones, too.'
I'd love to serve my country. I would love it.
I'm a political junkie.
I've always written a little bit. I mean, I've written screenplays, and I've doctored my dialogue for years, and I've written speeches - I was a speechwriter on 'The West Wing,' so I like that kind of thing. But I never really thought I'd write a book.
I've been on TV a long time, and I've never had a catch phrase.
Can we understand - just for the record, we do need the government for a lot of big ticket items.
One of the interesting things about Twitter is looking how famous people choose to use it. Take someone like Steve Martin, who I follow: it's all sorts of comic gems, nothing private, nothing personal - all jokes. Other celebrities are overtly personal - like Charlie Sheen. I do a mix of observations and updates.
The challenge as a parent is letting your kids fail in the right ways because that's where we do most of our learning.
Being in a successful marriage is no different than being cast in a successful movie. It's all about who you pick; in that first moment, did you pick the right person? I think you need to pick somebody who's more interested in being married than in getting married.
I love anything by Joan Didion. Incidentally, she was one of the local moms when I was growing up in Point Dume. She always reminded me a little bit of my mother, so I feel a great affinity. I love the precision of Didion's writing. There's a construction and a craftsmanship to her sentences that's imbued with so much emotion.
I made a conscious effort to focus on television so I could stay in Los Angeles, so I wasn't on a location all over the world doing movies.
I don't like being taken for granted anywhere in life. I don't want my vote taken for granted.
The '90s were a time of building for me. Building a life that was sober, drained of harmful, wasteful excess and manufacturing in its place a family of my own.
My son Matthew's beloved dog is a Jack Russell. His name is Buster. Matthew picked him as a puppy, when he was tiny himself.
I always wanted that house where everybody wants to go, full of energy, dogs, music, fun.
The highest levels of fame in the entertainment business are geared toward keeping the artist disconnected, disinterested and continuing to make product and not developing any sort of 'normal life.'
When I was filming 'The Outsiders,' my idea of success was getting the next Martin Scorsese movie.
For guys, I don't think you're ever ready... I don't think you wake up and go, 'You know, today's the day I'm going to get married. By God, I'm ready. My house is in order, and it is time.'
I'd like to build a TV company for myself.
I've always been involved in politics, since I was 8 or 9 years old. I sold Kool-Aid for McGovern - I could always pick a winner.
The term 'celebrity memoir' has gotten such a bad name now, but there used to be a little bit of an art form to it.
I feel pressures to stay relevant. To stay interesting and interested. To stay at the top of my game and expand.
I don't think the Internet should be immune to the standing laws of countries.
I was smart and married somebody who could do for me what I couldn't do for myself.
Getting married isn't going to make your relationship better. It's just a ceremony.
I've never met a funny person who wasn't smart. I've met a lot of dramatic people who were stupid. But I've never met a funny person who wasn't smart.
When you're writing personal stories, you have to be totally uncompromising - to the extent that you can be - about yourself. I know that if I am uber-uncompromising with myself, that gives me some latitude to write about others.
I am the guy dressing up in, you know, the caveman outfit for the kids' birthday parties.
I believe in ceremony. I think ceremony is important, pomp and circumstance, tradition. I'm into those things.
Sun Valley is one of my favorite spots.
There is a movie called 'My Dog Skip,' starring my 'Outsiders' costar Diane Lane. I do not recommend it. If you have a child, particularly one about to leave home, watching this film is to be emotionally waterboarded.
JFK is a role I've always dreamt of playing.
Here's my theory: If a person gets worldwide fame at a young age, they're emotionally frozen at that moment. For me, that's 15 to 18, so you find yourself in your mid-20s being a glorified 15-year-old. What could possibly go wrong?
I'm perfectly flawed... I've got tons of flaws.
I loved fun. I spent my whole life in search of fun. I have not given up that part of myself.
I wouldn't be where I am today without my mistakes. Particularly my mistakes. Exclusively my mistakes.
