EMILIO ESTEVEZ

In the current climate, we live in a pessimistic and non-idealistic world.

I probably grow half my food. It's a good way to keep perspective.

I think I've matured to a great extent. I think that I want different things now. That it's not about the celebrity status that you receive because you're doing the next hot movie. It's about doing good work.

You make a film and you don't know who it's going to appeal to.

We get very set in our ways and it's sometimes hard to look beyond what else is out there.

When people ask what were the qualities of Bobby Kennedy that they most admired, it was first that he was tough. Second, he told the truth and third, he stood up for the little guy.

What I find interesting is that the people that follow your Twitters are called 'followers.' Talk about false idolatry, right?

What does it take to get you to the point where you have to kill your brother? It's biblical, it's huge. It's so personal.

Writing is a lonely job unless you're a drinker, in which case you always have a friend within reach.

You look at 1968 and it was truly the year that shook the world. The world was really completely upside down.

By definition, I believe I am unapologetically optimistic and I am unapologetically earnest.

My mother missed having dinner with Lyndon Johnson because she couldn't find the right hat to wear. While my father went off to the white house to break bread with the President, my mother, who's not a things and stuff person, stayed at the hotel and tried on 10 different hats and missed dinner.

People are beautiful wrecks.

Where people are now in terms of the economic crisis, they're looking at what we think is the bottom, and I think that's when people look to film and to spirituality.

All the crap that we've encumbered our lives with, it's really meaningless.

If only media people would stop reaching for the low-hanging fruit, which is cynicism and pessimism, and stopped trying so hard to be hip and cool and have a swagger.

A biopic would have required hiring an actor, and I always wanted to just let Bobby be Bobby. My thought was it would make it a more universal story to focus on ordinary people rather than this extraordinary man.

The first couple of pictures I wrote and directed were dreadful, because I was dealing in worlds that were not familiar to me, and writing about fantasy. They were just not anything I was really connected to.

In making certain things easier for people, technology has actually demotivated people from using their brains. We have all these devices that keep us connected, and yet we're more disconnected than ever before. Why is that?

I still have the art projects my kids made for me 20 years ago. I cherish them, crude and silly as some of them may be.

You know, we're a tight family. I live right down the street from my folks. I talk to my mother every day. I'm a momma's boy. We all are. So there's no exclusion in this family. You're part of it. We embrace you and lift you up.

Since the beginning of time, every child on the planet has endeavored to please their parents.

There is no doubt that directing television has helped hone my directing skills. What television teaches you is to be efficient and to think on your feet. You have to adhere to strict deadlines and budget constraints.

I have a problem with objectifying women, but I don't have a problem playing a guy who objectifies women.

Madrid is enjoyed most from the ground, exploring your way through its narrow streets that always lead to some intriguing park, market, tapas bar or street performer. Each night we'd leave our hotel to begin a new adventure in Madrid and nine out of 10 times, we'd walk through the Plaza Mayor.