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

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.

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.

Two days after moving we recommended ourselves to God, Our Lord, and fled, hoping that, although it was late in the season and the fruits of the tunas were giving out, by remaining in the field we might still get over a good portion of the land.

I didn't know at the time that the energy that I was giving off was like a battle Emcee.

For it is in giving that we receive.

All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.

This bored fantastic woman, with her animal nature, giving herself the pleasure of seeing her enemy struck down, not a particularly keen one for her because she is so weary of having all her desires satisfied.

While Kuwait is not a democracy, giving only half the population a voice in their government is not a policy this Congress should support and one that I am glad that Kuwait's leaders are changing.

When you take a look at the problems our country is facing, debt is No. 1. The math is downright scary and the credit markets aren't going to keep on giving us cheap rates.

Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.

The second is the structure and source of cults. They have always haunted me, and I wanted to explore the fundamental notion of giving up responsibility to an outside power.

New technologies such as solar systems or hybrid cars aren't created overnight. By extending these tax credits we are giving this industry time to grow, branch out and succeed.

My idea of managing is giving the ball to Tom Seaver and sitting down and watching him work.

I don't think anyone wants a reader to be completely lost - certainly not to the point of giving up - but there's something to be said for a book that isn't instantly disposable, that rewards a second reading.

I believe that the average guy in the street will give up a great deal, if he really understands the cost of not giving it up. In fact, we may find that, while we're drastically cutting our energy consumption, we're actually raising our standard of living.

We had avoided discovery by the Sioux scouts, and we were confident of giving them a complete surprise.

It is giving me a great satisfaction, because I had the notion that we could make great wines equal to the greatest wines in the world, and everybody said it was impossible.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

All of us are mad. If it weren't for the fact every one of us is slightly abnormal, there wouldn't be any point in giving each person a separate name.

The mark of a true professional is giving more than you get.

Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.

I want the privilege of guiding the arrows of my children and giving them the exhortations that can shoot them into the high place.

Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped.

I think most Americans believe that although it's better not to use military force if you can avoid it, that the world simply doesn't provide us the luxury of giving away military force as an important tool of foreign policy.

I don't think people were betting on me, but they were giving me a chance. I think I rode a wave there, by being different in appearance than the girls who preceded me.

I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.

Being an artist is dragging your innermost feelings out, giving a piece of yourself, no matter in which art form, in which medium.

To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving.

I don't think of myself as giving interviews. I just have conversations. That gets me in trouble.

You're assisting the audience to understand; you're giving them a bridge or an access. And if you don't give them that, if you keep it more abstract, it's almost more pure. It's a cooler thing.

Pointless... like giving caviar to an elephant.