If we don’t appropriately manage the ‘open loops’ in our life, our attention will get pulled.

Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.

Pretend your brain is a white board. Is it covered with to-do lists and “DO NOT ERASE”? Is there space for drawing and combining ideas?

Overwhelm comes from not clarifying what your intended outcome is, not deciding what the very next action is, and not reminding yourself of your intended outcome and action.

You need to transform all the ‘stuff’ you attract and accumulate into a clear inventory of meaningful actions, projects, and usable information.

Getting things done requires defining what “done” means and what “doing” looks like.

Mastering your workflow involves capturing what has your attention, clarifying what it means, putting it where it belongs, reviewing it frequently and engaging with it.

If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it is defined.

Anxiety and guilt don’t come from having too much to do; it comes from breaking agreements with yourself.

The genius of a folk melody or story is not the feeling that it's original but quite the opposite - the feeling that it has existed all along.

The real achievement of Woody Allen was that he was making movies that felt very personal, and for a whole group of people, it spoke to them. Then he became an archetype, like Groucho Marx or Chaplin.

I had auditioned for 'Saturday Night Live' two or three times before and never really saw myself there. I looked up to Belushi and Bill Murray and Aykroyd and I never saw myself as in their world.

It is very important that we take care of our health.

I have tremendous respect for film composers.

There's an incredible fascination for that and that goes with violence and everything else in pictures.

The status quo is persistent and resistant. It exists because everyone wants it to. Everyone believes that what they've got is probably better than the risk and fear that come with change.

I felt such a deep connection with dolphins. I felt like they were the only ones who understood me.

Matte digital prints are gorgeous, don't you agree? But the glossy digital prints, I just can't stand that paper.

The data which is used to date for making the conclusions and predictions on global warming are so rough and primitive, compared to what's needed, and so unreliable that they are not even worth mentioning by respectful scientists.

My mornings are really about being with my children, so I tend to lay out my outfit the night before when my children are asleep so I can have a quick turnaround time in the morning.

People say 'what do you mean' when you talk about 'bringing down civilization.' What I really mean is depriving the rich of the ability to steal from the poor and depriving the powerful of the ability to destroy the planet. That's what I really mean.

Success is the most important to many, to me it's just a bonus.

I like to stay in the rhythm of things.

Music in this film is a very important part.

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.

Movies are a commercial medium. We don't make movies to impress our friends and critics. It's an expensive medium. We have to gain money from it.

Everybody has something to prove each year. Everybody has a responsibility in this game. Even the batboy.

Shakespeare didn't work at all for me.

The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.

Truth is a pathless land.

To fight tyranny and oppression by using tyrannical and oppressive means, to combat a single-minded and ruthless fanaticism by becoming equally fanatical and ruthless, will not further the cause of justice or bring about a meaningful democracy. It can only prolong the cycle of violence.

When you're nearing 35, going, 'Hey Dad, I can't make these payments,' just isn't cool.