(on being caught up in Hollywood’s celebrity culture) My parents are really good at keeping me level-headed, not that I’ve ever had the desire to not be level-headed. That’s really disgusted me in other people and I’ve always kept myself in check. I really see no reason in not being level headed.

(talking about his native country) Russia is very complicated. It is one of the most complicated histories. I could go on about this forever. It produces Dostoyevsky and Rachmaninoff and then it produces Stalins and Lenins. It is such a strange combination. I don’t know why that rant about Russia was necessary.

To me high school is such an unhealthy place in general. Every teenager is [going through] this incredible hormonal explosion. Then they put a thousand of them in one place. It is like putting hot air in a balloon.

(on being faced with the decision of leaving home, like his character in “House of D”) I think it’s such a difficult thing to do, and I don’t know if I’m strong enough

(on doing a comedy, “Charlie Bartlett”, after several dramatic roles) Everything that I’ve worked on, I’ve wanted to work on and it was a learning experience for me. But it was nice to get to be funny and stuff for a change.

on doing a movie based on a true story like “Alpha Dog”) You always want to be as realistic as possible, to the full extent of my abilities or whatever, but I just felt sort of this really had to be as real as I could make it, as real as I could imagine.

(about figure skating) My mom and dad would always tried to teach me, but I hated it!