A director shouldn't get in the way of the movie, the story should.

I am fascinated with times past.

I think once you've finished a movie you really have to detach from it so that you can come back and watch it as an audience member.

I think a story should take as long to tell as it is appropriate to that particular story.

Visual storytelling of one kind or another has been around since cavemen were drawing on the walls.

And I don't think I'm giving away any secrets here, but there are a lot of terrible scripts in this town.

To me, length is an artificial and arbitrary factor in a film.

Boy, I'd hate to shoot on tape or disc or whatever the hell they're talking about. I love film.

A director shouldn't get in the way of the movie, the story should.

Some of us have great original ideas and some of us depend on adaptations.

'The Exorcist' is amazing because it recognizes that silences can be as powerful as sound effects.

I spent 20 years of my career primarily being a writer for hire.

I'd like to think that my films are personal enough to exist without hearkening back to their respective novels.

One of my favorite movies of all time is 'It's A Wonderful Life,' which is a pretty interesting choice for a seasonal Christmas favorite, because it's about a guy who wants to commit suicide and is presented with reasons not to.

Stanley Kubrick was a big inspiration. People accuse me of never using my own material. But when did Kubrick? You look at his films and they are completely unique... completely separate entities.

The human race is fundamentally insane. If you put two of us into a room together, we're soon gonna start figuring out good reasons to kill one another.

The only person who can, with impunity, make the movie he wants to make, has got to be Steven Spielberg.

I was a crazy guy in Hollywood back in the day, and then when I switched into theater, I got into work mode.

I like to communicate on my Instagram page with people: use it as a window to my world.

In elementary school, I did well in science, but I was a poor writer. When I got to high school, I failed all my courses.

The responsibility of philanthropy rests with us. The wealthier we are, the more powerful we get. We cannot put the entire onus on the government.

You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it.

I think I would just want to say that I do view serving in government as an honor, and I do view it as a responsibility.

To do a musical takes a tremendous amount of energy because you have to act and sing at the same time. And everything has to be precise. Because you can't forget the lyrics because the band keeps playing, you know, and you're under a certain amount of pressure.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision

I thank the voters of Upstate N.Y. for this privilege to serve and pledge to continue to work tirelessly on their behalf in this final term.

There are a lot of wonderful books out there that aren't marketed properly, and readers who might love them never even know they exist.

To have the privileged position of being the guy who is responsible for shaping the entire experience for an audience as opposed to being just one instrument in that orchestra, being an actor, it's all-encompassing.

We classify too much and enjoy too little.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

Government should work to insure the rights of the individual, not plot to take them away.

What has the women's movement learned from Geraldine Ferraro's candidacy for vice president? Never get married.

In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.

I just read that 81 percent of Americans are ready to vote for a woman. So it sounds like America is ready.

Were this big melting pot but someone turned up the heat too high and the stew started to burn. Gangs crime fights and fear are now a regular part of our local stew.

The argument that a serif font is too fussy doesn't cut it anymore. You want a font where the letter forms are not ambiguous.

I think the rejection - if it's taken in the right spirit, it can make you a better person. And I think that is what I've always striven for. If one thing didn't work out, a project or anything, it doesn't mean that I lose my own confidence. In fact, I give myself a lot more confidence and opportunities.

A gray day provides the best light.

While I love to read contemporary fiction, I'm not drawn to writing it. Perhaps it's because the former journalist in me is too inhibited by the press of reality; when I think about writing of my own time I always think about nonfiction narratives. Or perhaps it's just that I find the present too confounding.

Its surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.