Brad Pitt to Esquire: "I've haven't known life to be any happier"

A long-haired, sunglasses-clad Brad Pitt is on the cover of Esquire's June/July issue, and in the magazine's pages he opens up about family life with partner Angelina Jolie and their six children, having "very few" friends and seizing opportunities.

"I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big," the "World War Z" star said in the issue's cover story. "I wanted there to be chaos in the house...there's constant chatter in our house, whether it's giggling or screaming or crying or banging. I love it. I love it. I love it. I hate it when they're gone. I hate it. Maybe it's nice to be in a hotel room for a day -- 'Oh, nice, I can finally read a paper.' But then, by the next day, I miss that cacophony, all that life."

Pitt, 49, added that between his family and friends, life is pretty good. "I have very few friends," he revealed. "I have a handful of close friends and I have my family and I haven't known life to be any happier. I'm making things. I just haven't known life to be any happier."

He also spoke about making a "conscious choice" not to waste opportunities.

"For a long time I thought I did too much damage - drug damage. I was a bit of a drifter," he recalled. "A guy who felt he grew up in something of a vacuum and wanted to see things, wanted to be inspired. I followed that other thing. I spent years [expletive] off. But then I got burnt out and felt that I was wasting my opportunity. It was a conscious change. This was about a decade ago. It was an epiphany - a decision not to squander my opportunities. It was a feeling of get up. Because otherwise, what's the point?"

"World War Z" opens in theaters on June 21. The June/July issue of Esquire hits newsstands on May 31.