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By the time I sat down to write 'Family Pictures,' I hadn't written anything in almost two years, and writing, I have discovered, is a muscle: if it isn't exercised, it will atrophy.

I prefer atrophy over exercise any day.

If you do not use a muscle or any part of the body, it tends to become atrophic. So is the case with the brain. The more you use it, the better it becomes.

I use very few muscles at the best of times.

I was a semi-professional gymnast as a child. I did rhythmic gymnastics, but I sustained an injury and strained all the muscles in my spine.

It's so rare to get all of your muscles firing at once. That's what I look for in any role.

The body needs to rest. It needs a lot less exercise than you think.

With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.

So many older people, they just sit around all day long and they don't get any exercise. Their muscles atrophy, and they lose their strength, their energy and vitality by inactivity.

It's happened a couple of times in training when I hyper-extend my back. Some facet joints send all the muscles in my lower back and lumbar-spine into spasm.