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" I don't pick my roles by genre; that's kind of silly. "

Michael Shannon

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" Everybody's constantly being destroyed and rebuilding themselves, some more drastically than others. "

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" I like to play characters that get to do it all - to have a bit of comedy here and a bit of pathos here and a bit of suspense here, that's what's fun. "

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" My dad used to say, 'You have to become part of the machine to beat the machine,' and there's some validity in it. But honestly, even when I'm inside the machine, you still see me. I stick out a little bit. "

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" Everything that happens on Wall Street only fortifies my opinion that there is in fact a more ludicrous industry than the entertainment industry. "

Michael Shannon

" One of the reasons I'm an actor is because I was no physical specimen as a child. I wasn't athletic and didn't have any prowess in that regard. Growing up in Kentucky, most little boys were trying to get into sports, and it was very competitive, so that was not to be. But I did want to do something. "

Michael Shannon

" One of the great things about acting is you can do things that in real life would get you in trouble. I think that's something I figured out pretty early on. "

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" If you don't believe there's some organising principle, or somebody up in the sky pulling the strings, then it can be very stressful. And nature itself is very arbitrary - it's not malevolent or benevolent; it doesn't even know we're here. "

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" There's nothing routine about 'Boardwalk Empire.' It's like being in some secret society where they call you up and tell you where to go: 'Meet us at the corner of such and so.' "

Michael Shannon

" You can't escape this feeling of disintegration. The world is fragile. But you also can't let it ruin your life. I'm actually a pretty composed person. I guess people imagine I spend my life thinking about crazy, sinister things but I don't, really. It's not like I'm trying to exorcise any demons. "

Michael Shannon

" I'm just kind of odd. There are dark forces in the world, and if you pay attention to what's going on around you, you end up incorporating it into the storytelling. Maybe it's some aspect of myself that's coming through that people are seeing, that I am in fact a quiet psycho. "

Michael Shannon

" The thing about New York is, more than any other place I've ever been, you run into people on the street that you would never imagine you'd see, old friends, people just like there for a day or two. I find that all the time when I'm walking around Manhattan, running into people that I had no idea were even there. "

Michael Shannon

" Let's point out the elephant in the room: Actor bands are not notoriously successful enterprises. I can't think of any. "

Michael Shannon

" It's always very daunting to play someone who actually existed. You have to honor that, and be specific and accurate and try to make people believe that you're that guy, which is really hard. "

Michael Shannon

" I've known a lot of religious people. My mother is very religious, but she also is very private about it. When I was growing up, she never went to church. She just prayed and read her Bible and kept it to herself. I'm not from a background of flamboyant believers. It's much more a personal issue. "

Michael Shannon

" It's obviously a lot harder to try and be a good guy than it is to be a bad guy. The world is a fundamentally evil place, it seems like. So in order to be a good person, you have to fight temptation and vice. "

Michael Shannon

" If you give me enough time, enough leash, I can become pretty reasonable. "

Michael Shannon

" I think if you watch a lot of what I do, you're going to ultimately walk away seeing me. I can't hide - that impression is a personal impression people have of me. "

Michael Shannon

" I know this'll sound obnoxious, but acting was very much an accident for me. I didn't have, like, posters of Marlon Brando in my bedroom when I was growing up. "

Michael Shannon

" I started acting because I was miserable and crazy and wanted to be someone else, to run around and scream in front of people without getting in trouble. "

Michael Shannon

" I've never worried about anything in my life a fraction of the way I worry about my daughter. It's much more than hoping people like the play you're in, or that your outfit doesn't look bad. It's the real deal. "

Michael Shannon

" That's one of the great things about acting - you get to pretend you're somebody else, which is great if you get bored with yourself. "

Michael Shannon

" If I were God, I would just be up there scratching my head, thinking, 'What the hell am I supposed to do with this?' For everyone helping an old lady across the street, there's someone else bludgeoning a person to death. And sometimes they're the same. How can He separate us all out? "

Michael Shannon

" There are certain ways of being that people don't find acceptable or very pleasant in regular life, but you go out on stage and do pretty much the same thing and they find it spellbinding. "

Michael Shannon

" Honestly, as hard a profession as acting is, I think music is even harder. Acting, you're like a leech, because someone else does the hard part for you. They write it for you, then the director tells you what to do. You really just need to know how to pay attention, follow instructions. "

Michael Shannon