Trust is always a factor. You've just got to look at the big picture, and you've got to look at the small picture - the small picture in the sense that you've got to make every scene work and you've got to deal with what people are presenting you with, too.

Willem Dafoe

The worst thing is to get involved with people who aren't passionate about what they're doing.

Willem Dafoe

passionate worst people

Performing is about developing empathy, which leads us to a broader view of the world and encourages us to develop compassion; so we can comfort each other and not be so brutal with each other.

Willem Dafoe

empathy compassion views

I think on some level, you do your best things when you're a little off-balance, a little scared. You've got to work from mystery, from wonder, from not knowing.

Willem Dafoe

balance knowing thinking

I set myself challenges every time I work. Ideally I approach everything as though it's the first time - with a beginner's mind and an amateur's love.

Willem Dafoe

challenges mind firsts

You have to lose yourself to find yourself.

Willem Dafoe

losing-yourself finding-yourself loses

When you have something to work with, then you fly with it.

Willem Dafoe

Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.

Willem Dafoe

theatre challenges thinking

I never act. I simply bring out the real animal that's in me.

Willem Dafoe

real animal

Action breeds inspiration more than inspiration breeds action.

Willem Dafoe

inspiration action

I guess they often cast me as the bad guy, because I'm not, er, conventional looking. I look sort of violent. I'm the odd one out, the outsider.

Willem Dafoe

odd-one guy looks

You can be intuitive when you've got a more expansive role. You can get into the poetry of telling the story rather than just pushing buttons.

Willem Dafoe

buttons roles stories

I want to work with people who are good at what they do, and people who are passionate.

Willem Dafoe

passionate want people

Sometimes I think women are lucky because they can develop in ways men can't. The old-boy network may be oppressive to women, but it actually stunts men in terms of personal growth.

Willem Dafoe

men boys thinking

I'm not attracted to naturalism, I'm not attracted to behavior, I'm attracted to dance. I'm attracted to gesture, I'm attracted to singing with your voice, as opposed to having a natural manner. I'm a theater actor first, so that probably influences a lot of my approach. And I think in many ways, naturalism has ruined movies.

Willem Dafoe

singing voice thinking

There's a real wisdom to not saying a thing.

Willem Dafoe

real-wisdom real

Weirdness is not my game. I'm just a square boy from Wisconsin.

Willem Dafoe

squares games boys

Film is fragmented and gets into lots of other people's hands. There are a lot of pleasures that theatre gives me. You get to perform uninterrupted.

Willem Dafoe

giving hands people

When I was a kid I was very interested in the idea of the will, finding out what you're capable of. I liked those kind of challenges.

Willem Dafoe

challenges kids ideas

I try to attach myself to people who really inspire me, and directors who are really passionate. That way, I can give myself more fully and trust the impulse behind why the film is being made, and I can be a little more irresponsible in finding out what the character is.

Willem Dafoe

giving character people

Sometimes you're wrong, but if I'm a repeat customer, it means I must have valued the past experiences.

Willem Dafoe

sometimes mean past