Quotes By Tom Berenger

My mother, sister and I watched through the windows as my father gambled.

To people outside, they think, Gee, that's great. You get to go here and there. The other side of that is our expression, This is location, not vacation.

I had already done a lot of research for Rough Riders, keeping notebooks and old photographs. Some of the books were antiques for that time period, with the covers falling off.

I like playing flawed characters, people who aren't perfect.

Most of what gets made now, you laugh your way through, go home and forget you've seen it.

I didn't know how to go about preparing for the part of someone who can't remember who he is. The frustration angle is written in, but there's also this incredible passive state.

I was kind of confused. I thought, Well, if I get drafted, I'll go. Everybody was very concerned with it. I had friends who went. Some that came back and some that didn't.

I don't care about being a star. I can do a supporting role; I don't have to be a lead.

Even my agents say, We don't know what this business is anymore.

I was so exhausted after fighting for the project for five years, shooting it was like the Bataan Death March.

Debra Winger doesn't let anything interfere with her performance, which is the way it should be.

You can't think that you're playing a villain, or you'll end up with a cartoon. You have to think about him as a person and a hero.

These days, you can do a TV series for five years and all of a sudden be on top of the business. Features don't even run in theaters very long anymore before going right to television.

I'm probably satisfied with my career 80 percent of the time.

There's a hysterical, tired sense of humor that comes after working 14 hours a day, six days a week. I like those things because they take the pressure off the constant stress.

I wrote a script. I actually enjoyed writing it more than acting. It's about the Irish rebellion of 1920, which is a fascinating period and place for me.

In this industry, the new owners prefer to kill anything they weren't responsible for.

I came in on the tail end of the old school of Hollywood.

Around mid-life everyone goes maniac a little bit.

I don't think a director should have any kids. I don't even think it's good for your physical health. Even guys in their 30s look exhausted because directors never get enough sleep. What I do is stressful enough.

Sometimes I think I'm real predictable to myself and other times... you always wonder, Is this really what I wanted to do? Did I make a mistake? Should I be doing something else?

Rough Riders took 13 weeks to shoot, plus a week of training. The same guy trained us trained the cast in Platoon. Except, instead of radios, we used bugles to signal.

Take characters that Nicholson or De Niro play: they're not always tough.

I've done about six comedies. Oddly enough, the script came to me from one of the guys in Platoon.

I remember seeing Bill Hurt in New York once. I talked to him on the phone around 1988 and that's about it. I was shooting in New York and somebody said Glenn Close came by the set.

While I was doing these plays in the beginning, I wasn't getting paid. I thought of it more as a hobby. Then I realized how seriously a lot of these people took what they were doing.

Every other movie is one of those action things. I mean, 'Lost in Space'? A bunch of good actors running around shooting at special effects on a soundstage? I took my kids to see that and felt like I was on an acid trip.

I got to talking to an old actor, and he had a bunch of stories about the Rough Riders.

I feel more comfortable doing films with groups of guys. It's a lot easier for me. There's a difference with women: you can't take them to dinner every night and go crazy.

I guess if I weren't an actor, I'd be a history professor.