It's become very popular in contemporary films to have the twist ending.

In the old days the studios guided your career. Now it's all up to you.

I've always loved movies about con men. I think con men are as American as apple pie.

I didn't have a normal background - I was completely demented from a very early age!

It's always good to have no expectations when you see a film. Then you can be pleasantly disappointed or surprised.

I hate tests. It's a really lousy way to judge a person's ability.

It's become very popular in contemporary films to have the twist ending.

I'm actually really opposed to the death penalty.

You don't really get to pick and chose what you would like to be doing. But I've been very fortunate, and I think water seeks its own level. You do gravitate towards things that you would get off on.

It's very liberating to be naked in front of a hundred people, but there's nothing sexual about lovemaking on a movie set.

I grew up in Texas, but that was 20 years ago. Last year, in Fort Worth, they had hail the size of softballs. We're seeing more and more powerful storms, of all types, almost on a biblical level.

When you start out as a filmmaker, you do parodies, because you can't really compete on a studio level.

Growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was more famous than John Wayne to some of us. I knew him. I worked with him on a low budget film years ago, and we'd sit around at night while waiting for a shot.

I came out to Hollywood when I was just 18, and my dad, he was really into Hollywood and theater and art, and I guess growing up, he exposed me to a lot of culture, and I just started making Super-8 films in high school and decided I wanted to be a filmmaker.

I don't care how much hardware you throw at an audience. If they are not emotionally invested in the thing, it's zero. I can name a slew of films, but I have no ax to grind. I understand the commerce of Hollywood probably better than anyone.

I got to direct a human interest sports drama - to this day, one of my proudest achievements in my career and a source of undying pride.

I think I got an Instamatic camera when I was 8 years old, and ever since then, I've liked to record things. I don't know why. Maybe it's just to kind of try to leave some kind of record behind.

I've had a career that is kind of under the radar, but it sure is varied, and I've been so blessed to be able to get paid to do something I love to do.

I've had a life where things have worked out for me beyond my wildest dreams, and my brother's had just the opposite.

In our game, it's your vanity that keeps you in shape. I've got a little gym set up, and I ride a single-speed bike up the hills behind my house. Lately I've been kind of a slacker. Usually it's a film role that makes me start getting in shape. Between roles, I try to do a little maintenance, but I'm not a workout fanatic at all.

It was so weird that I would end up directing 'The Greatest Game Ever Played,' because, y'know, I'm not a big golfer myself. But I grew up around the game. My mom and dad kind of built their dream house off the 11th fairway of Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth.

It's easy to get jaded. It's easy to get lazy. It's easy to get too self-centric, like, 'Why me? What about my needs?' It has nothing to do with that. But you see, you are the thing you are selling whether you are a director or an actor in this business. It's very tough. The town doesn't realize that its greatest resource is its people.

My father always read obituaries to me out loud, not because he was maudlin or morbid, but because they were mini biographies.

My first film was a movie shot in 1974. I was 18 on that movie set. It was called 'Big Bad Mama.' I turned 19 on the next movie I worked on, which was a black 'Blazing Saddles.' I worked in the art department. It was called 'Darktown Strutters.'

Since I was a small boy, I was always around the game. I don't play golf much myself, but I love watching it. My father has played golf all his life.

There's something about being at the tournaments that you don't really get on TV, although golf is a great sport to watch on television.

What's been nice is that I've been able to direct from a very idealistic place. I've never had to make my living as a director, which gave me a chance to choose material I feel passionate about. The directing allows me to not have to grab any acting role that comes along. I can pick and choose a little bit.

Through readiness and discipline we are the masters of our fate.

When you start out as a filmmaker you do parodies because you cant really compete on a studio level.

You are not a beautiful, unique snowflake... This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.

Pakistan has made no mention of ending our tests. We have a missile program, and it is in the national interest whatever we want to do.

Death doesn't frighten me; now I can think peacefully of ending a long life.

Love is life's end, but never ending. Love is life's wealth, never spent, but ever spending. Love's life's reward, rewarded in rewarding.

To come up with the ending to a story and then work backwards is like tying your shoe with one hand only.

I caution against beginning or ending a quotation with ellipses.

We expect President Bush to implement his own vision of a two-state solution, the birth of the Palestinian State and the ending of the occupation that started in 1967.

It's precisely the disappointing stories, which have no proper ending and therefore no proper meaning, that sound true to life.

I like to compare the holiday season with the way a child listens to a favorite story. The pleasure is in the familiar way the story begins, the anticipation of familiar turns it takes, the familiar moments of suspense, and the familiar climax and ending.

What then is tragedy? In the Elizabethan period it was assumed that a play ending in death was a tragedy, but in recent years we have come to understand that to live on is sometimes far more tragic than death.

The principle of the endless melody is the perpetual becoming of a music that never had any reason for starting, any more than it has any reason for ending.

Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one.

A hard beginning maketh a good ending.

I felt Brighton was a perfect ending to a really interesting career.

Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.

Writing is truly a creative art - putting word to a blank piece of paper and ending up with a full-fledged story rife with character and plot.

It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak.

My intent was to carry out my duty as a doctor, to end their suffering. Unfortunately, that entailed, in their cases, ending of the life.

Watergate provides a model case study of the interaction and powers of each of the branches of government. It also is a morality play with a sad and dramatic ending.

Avoid extremes: be moderate In saving and in spending; An equable and easy gait Will win an easy ending.