I think spiritual perception comes from natural and healthy relationship to the land and I`ve had that. I get an easy, automatic sense of myself in nature, a wholeness and I feel nowhere else. I think people should live where praying is most immediate. That`s why I live in New Mexico. The physical terrain, the feeling, the environment and culture improve my life just by waking up there.

I think part of my reputation has to do with the difficult roles I've played. Actors do tend to get identified with their characters.

I was in love with Tina Goodman since I was three and her parents came popping out of the trash cans. I think it made a big impression on me.

I don't think of my life as a cliche, but I'm a cliche eccentric. Complete with a strange name - I mean, who's named Val? How many Vals do you know? I mean, really?

The trick to being a good actor is getting so involved in your character that the camera disappears, the 50 bored guys eating doughnuts disappear, friends disappear. To get to that point when you don't have to think about it, you're just acting and reacting in those circumstances.

I don't believe in death. I think it's just a state of mind.

I think death is just a transition to another state of consciousness.

I just don't think I've ever been comfortable at public functions and selling myself as an entity.

I probably complained more when I was younger. The movie industry can be frustrating but I think sometimes I could have been more helpful, approaching a film as a partnership rather than being critical of a director`s ignorance. I wasn`t sensitive to the fact that it`s very hard to direct.