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

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 good life, as it is popularly conceived, typically involves acquiring mastery in one's work, thus gaining for oneself better terms - or means to rewards, whether material, like wealth, or nonmaterial - an experience we may call 'prospering.'

My version, of course, is not this flag-waving, let's all get on the Jesus train and ride out of hell. I'm not that kind of guy. It's an embrace that life is good, worth living and yeah, it's not easy, but there are more pluses than minuses.

Book - what they make a movie out of for television.

An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet a union in partition, Two lovely berries moulded in one stem

On the broad spectrum of solitude, I lean toward the extreme end: I work alone, as well as live alone, so I can pass an entire day without uttering so much as a hello to another human being. Sometimes a day's conversation consists of only five words, uttered at the local Starbucks: 'Large coffee with milk, please.'

This one, even though it called for San Francisco, I think they wanted to initially shoot part of the film up here, you know get the exteriors and then go back to L.A. We really fought to get it up here and I think Paramount was really pleased.

If life doesnt kill you emptiness will.

Voters will decide how they want to be governed.

My husband believes that he can make a difference. He loves people.

I don't want to make it a hard, fast rule, but it's surprising how many 'fun for the whole family' acts are real scumbags. The people that confess they're scumbags on stage are generally really great people. They're more honest with the audience with who they are.

Frank Sinatra taught me how to do him. It took me seven years to master him. He would tell me, tap your foot, Rich, and don't forget to grasp your sleeve.

There's no place to act in Kansas. You're supressed.

Although my mother didn't necessarily approve of teenage girls wearing heels, she made an exception for me when I was 14 because she didn't want me to be self-conscious about my height - or to slouch.

The thing is, you try your best, and what else you got? You try your best, really, that's all you can do. And for me, my best happens really so rarely.

I don't call myself an actor, I call myself an entertainer, because I don't just do one thing.

On many different singles, I was able to marry my music with rappers who understood the natural bond between us.

I've always been able to let stuff go when I'm done with work.

God is so unique in giving His people ways to fellowship, witness, and remember what a mighty and merciful God He is.

The magic question is, 'What for?' But art is not for anything. Art is the ultimate goal.

I have lost everything, and I am so poor now that I really cannot afford to let anything worry me.

It is an essential tenet of our whole representative form of government, the idea that there should not be some tyranny which makes it so nobody can even have a chance to vote.

We ignore our feelings a lot, I realize. Many of us have to... until they really bite us in the butt.