It's always nice when the eccentrics show up.

We hope to do the Spanish Tragedy based on the play by Thomas Kyd.

Because there is actually something very interesting in Goodfellas, how the style of the film changes as time goes by and based on the mental state of the protagonist.

Shakespeare, who is probably the greatest writer and poet of the English language, lived in a time that was politically very conservative and it's reflected in his writings.

That's my curse, I see the politics within these things and so I don't say yes to them.

So I had the worst experience at the very beginning, and things have been getting better since.

The greatest crime in a Shakespeare play is to murder the king.

I did not find my studies particularly enthralling.

Everybody gets a little dose of Shakespeare. He's the greatest playwright in the English language, but his politics are fairly square.

Sorry, but there is no pleasure in finding new ways of saying the same stuff about projects which tanked.

You'd never have a motorcycle policeman out on the Indian reservation.

I'd love to make another film in Mexico.

And Walker was made with a Mexican crew, although it was shot in Nicaragua.

I'm a good actor in that sense for directors because I always do what they say.

The future is always a dystopia in movies.

I don't think about Hollywood at all.

One of my contemporaries, a colorless chap who worked much harder at his law studies, is now Prime Minister.

The way that a handful of corporations in Los Angeles dictate how our stories are told creates a real poverty of imagination and it's a big problem.

Visual representation of it is essential if we're to come to terms with what it is we've done.

Unfortunately my career began in Hollywood, doing a negative pickup for Universal pictures.

Justin Salinger showed up one day with a pink cowboy hat on and everyone else got really annoyed because somehow he'd managed to get the pink cowboy hat.

In Goodfellas they have this one scene where the camera goes down some steps and walks through a kitchen into a restaurant and the critics were all over this as evidence of the genius of Scorsese and Scorsese is a genius.

The life of a repo man is always intense.

You can't change the system through violence.

It's always nice when the eccentrics show up.

No, I did a film called 'Death and the Compass' as well.

It's interesting actually, what's gone on with that footage, and also what happened with the footage from the war in Afghanistan, is that our news reporting is pretty much along the lines of pornography now.

And it says something about our level of disassociation, that we can provoke these wars abroad but we're not allowed to see people get killed as a result.

Yeah, I'd be happy to go back to Mexico or Japan to make another film.

I also have a degree in marriage, family and child counseling - I'm a therapist.

The enterprise can fulfill its human and social functions only if it prospers as a business.

I'm really interested in stories about identity - who I am now versus who I used to be.

When I'm playing well because of my serve and trying to keep points shorter, I don't need to worry about my opponent. All I need to do is focus on myself and have them adjust to me rather than me adjust to them. That's when I play my best tennis.

Creation's highest aim and most sublime result is belief in God. The most exalted rank of humanity is knowledge of God.

As readers, we sense when the game is being played for real and when something else is afoot: pride, showmanship, the pursuit of power, self-aggrandizement, revenge, making money. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, but I dislike closing a book with the sense that I've been had.

The resistance of policy-makers to intelligence is not just founded on an ideological presupposition. They distrust intelligence sources and intelligence officials because they don't understand what the real problems are.

For me, the film has to be incredibly bad to make me want to pack up and leave.

I think Syria is often covered by phone. You have to talk to activists. You have to try to read the tea leaves. You have to talk to government officials. It's remote-control reporting in a way.

Many women who have anorexia put their hearts in a compromised situation.

My buddy David Wells is a big motorcycle guy, so when I go visit him in San Diego, he takes me out on his bike. He's got some antique Indians. I never really rode during my career, because I was afraid I'd fall off and ruin my career.

On bikeback, there is a delightful sense of self-direction and autonomy. Lately, I have taken to cycling slowly, more fun than the fast, competitive commuter cycling I used to do. No longer do I jump lights or attempt that irritating wobbling thing that semi-professional cyclists like to indulge in.

I'd like to run for office someday, but I'm afraid my ability to spell might give me an unfair advantage.

Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.

People are doing amazing things right now on the Web.

My grandpa would come in with water and flick it on our faces at 6 A.M. and be like, 'If you don't get up to feed the horses, you don't get to ride them.' We'd get up.

If you screw up and do something, don't lie about it; come clean.

We invaded Iraq to change a totalitarian, despotic regime, and we have been successful there.

Closest to the truth are those who deal lightly with it because they know it is inexhaustible.

No, I don't know how to get young people to start listening to jazz again. But I do know this: Any symphony orchestra that thinks it can appeal to under-30 listeners by suggesting that they 'should' like Schubert and Stravinsky has already lost the battle.