ON HIS CAT
"I came home one day, and the cat just
walked into the house," Mr. Norton explains. "It was all flea-ridden
and hungry, so I cooked it a hot-dog in the microwave, took it to a vet,
and it's never left"
ON HIS PERSONAL LIFE
"On the whole, it's my instinct and my taste not to share my
personal life in a public way...It makes me uncomfortable for a number
of reasons. One, I have clearly observed--prior to experiencing a
little bit of it myself and while working with others who have
experienced it a lot--the degree to which fame can be an enormously
destructive force. There is no overstating the extent to which it can
be corrosive to the thing that I value most, which, much more than my
work, is leading a good and happy life." --Interview magazine, January
1997
"If I ever have to stop taking the subway, I'm gonna have a heart attack."
ON ACTING AND FAME
"People wrestle sometimes making movies, and I think that conflict is a very essential thing. I think a lot of very happy productions have produced a lot of very banal movies."
"I can't see myself, frankly, being a fifteen-million-dollar actor who, through his charisma or whatever, puts asses in seats. I don't think my face is ever going to open a movie."
"Acting? It's a longstanding compulsion I've had since I was about five or six years old. I can literally identify the moment it struck me. I went to see a play [If I Were a Princess] in which a babysitter of mine [Betsy True, who later acted on Broadway] was performing. I was completely shell-shocked by the magic of this little community-theater play; it just riveted me."
"Fame is very corrosive and you have to guard very strictly against it."
"I've never felt any particular encroachment of the 'celebrity' stuff into my life."
"I'm an actor and, each time out, I'm trying to convince the audience that I'm this character. Every little thing that people know about you as a person impedes your ability to achieve that kind of terrific suspension of disbelief that happens when an audience goes with an actor and character [he's] playing."
"The more you can create that magic bubble, that suspension of disbelief, for a while, the better."
"It's a nice position to be in; I'm lucky. At the same time, all the excitement of that has been put into stark perspective ... In some ways, the highs of it have been blunted, which in a way, is a gift."
"First of all, you never make all things for all people and can't always pander to the broadest denominator. I keep an eye toward doing the themes that interest me. Do they move me? Interest me? Make me think? When I run across something that is provocative in an unsettling way, it appeals to me."
ON SMOKING
"I don't smoke and I don't want to smoke. I am not a fan of
gratuitous smoking in films."
ON LIFE
"Life, like poker has an element of risk. It shouldn't be avoided. It should be faced."
