While I've lived in L.A. since 1985, I'll always consider Chicago my home town and have much affection for it. My parents and sister still live there so I try to visit as often as I'm able.

Robert Altman's Nashville is my all-time favorite film because it covers all the bases - it's original, moving, and has something to say, but also funny and incredibly entertaining.

That said, I should also add that I learned a great deal from being allowed in these privileged circles and am grateful for the opportunity to have worked closely with some of the most powerful and successful people in the business including Steven Spielberg and Ted Turner.

Animation scripts tend to be much more descriptive and are lighter on dialogue.

Right now, writing for me is most rewarding because I'm old enough now to have something to say, which probably wasn't always the case.

While I've lived in L.A. since 1985, I'll always consider Chicago my home town and have much affection for it. My parents and sister still live there so I try to visit as often as I'm able.

I would rather read a poorly structured story that has fresh ideas than a tightly structured one with cliches.

Write the kind of movie you would want to see, in a genre you love.

I love all of Albert Brooks' work from Defending Your Life back to his first film, Real Life, but am sorry that he seems to have lost his edge in his more recent work.

Working in Hollywood can be tumultuous, with incredible highs and lows and you need to be grounded.

There is nothing like the high of being on stage and reaping applause, especially for emotionally needy people like me!

I used to love Woody Allen but feel he's become a hack as a director. Bullets Over Broadway is the only film of his I've enjoyed in the last 10 years.

I know a lot of people in the business recommend the many Story Structure seminars being offered here, but I point to them as the single biggest contributor to lousy scripts.

Originality is, for me, the most important quality in a script.

I am a big fan of the TV series Taxi which combined comedy and pathos better than any other show I've seen.

The major studios don't differ very much from one another as they all operate under essentially the same principles and pressure.

Dick Van Dyke was my first idol. He's an amazing physical comedian, like a classic clown, but also very smart and not afraid to show vulnerability.

But so much of being an actor isn't so great - the auditioning, the rejection, the financial insecurity.

I was only in one play at Steppenwolf, in the early days.

I was born in Chicago and grew up in the suburb of Evanston.

The best way for a beginner to write for animation is to closely watch animated films, then read the screenplays for them afterwards.

I became much happier when I realized I shouldn't depend solely on my career for my sense of self. So I developed other interests and surrounded myself with a small group of friends I could trust.

Unfortunately, all the cliches we see about Hollywood are true.

When I saw The Player, I came out with knots in my stomach because it was so true to my experience.

I'm more concerned with getting them to find and strengthen their original voice as writers rather than imposing my own subjective tastes, judgements or sensibility on the project.

Fear of failure has always been my best motivator.

All of the material for The Fine Line was created via improvisation with my partner, but not in front of an audience. We'd continue to refine it in front of an audience based on their responses until it was set and scripted.

All of the material for 'The Fine Line' was created via improvisation with my partner, but not in front of an audience. We'd continue to refine it in front of an audience based on their responses until it was set and scripted.

I am a big fan of the TV series 'Taxi' which combined comedy and pathos better than any other show I've seen.

I love all of Albert Brooks' work from 'Defending Your Life' back to his first film, 'Real Life', but am sorry that he seems to have lost his edge in his more recent work.

I used to love Woody Allen but feel he's become a hack as a director. 'Bullets Over Broadway' is the only film of his I've enjoyed in the last 10 years.

Robert Altman's 'Nashville' is my all-time favorite film because it covers all the bases - it's original, moving, and has something to say, but also funny and incredibly entertaining.

When I saw 'The Player', I came out with knots in my stomach because it was so true to my experience.

The essential elements of giving are power and love - activity and affection - and the consciousness of the race testifies that in the high and appropriate exercise of these is a blessedness greater than any other.

The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.

No money on earth can buy the love and affection that has been given to me by a grateful nation.

I have loved but one flag and I can not share that devotion and give affection to the mongrel banner invented for the League of Nations.

Affection reproaches, but does not denounce.

But today, I feel the genuine warmth, the affection, and although I may joke about it, I am touched.

Well the wedding in the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury was a fairy tale and there was a huge public impress, investment of goodwill, affection and indeed money in this Institution. It was a huge success at the time.

All those authors there, most of whom of course I've never met. That's the poetry side, that's the prose side, that's the fishing and miscellaneous behind me. You get an affection for books that you've enjoyed.

The public has always had affection for gay entertainers. The time was right for an out gay entertainer.

While I've lived in L.A. since 1985, I'll always consider Chicago my home town and have much affection for it. My parents and sister still live there so I try to visit as often as I'm able.

A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection.

I would tell anyone who wants something from someone else to feign not wanting it. People are perverse. If you show great affection to them, they'll run the other way.

I think the President inspires tremendous affection and loyalty by a wide range of people.

He makes a great mistake... who supposes that authority is firmer or better established when it is founded by force than that which is welded by affection.

Even Stravinsky does not evoke the same public affection as Verdi.

Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.