There are no crowds out there demanding to see smoking scenes in movies.

My father could have been deported because on his immigration application he said that he was a printer, obviously because he didn't want them to be checking his writings.

I was a militant smoker, and in my case, I think I particularly used smoking because what I felt was a kind of politically correct big brother assault on smoking.

I had read too many memoirs that were written after the writer or the director was past his or her prime.

I have my own religious bond with the God in my own head.

There are no crowds out there demanding to see smoking scenes in movies.

I just wanted to make sure that what I write is what appears on screen, to not have some idiot change it on its way to the screen.

From what I've been able to determine, many of our big stars are addicted to tobacco. They want to smoke in movies for the same reason I smoked as I wrote, which is that they think their performance is going to be better.

The terrible, diabolic thing with this disease is that you are always looking behind your shoulder every couple months with the most recent checkup to see whether there is any sign of it, and I thank God to say at this point there is not.

I have only one loyalty - to my writing. I never wanted to be the head of a studio or a producer.

Fact is we went on to do other things. But we still wanted to do our success like rock'n'roll stars.

Meanwhile, politics is about getting a candidate in front of the public as a star, politics as rock'n'roll, politics as a movie.

I was six when we came to this country. When I was 14 or so, I still had a lot of trouble with it.

Every time I flicked channels, there I was, talking. I was talking too much and writing too little. So Naomi and I went to Hawaii. The phone was cut off and we lost touch. This gave me the chance to have a good think about my life.

And the inner dynamics of Hollywood are like politics. Say you give a script to a group of executives - they all sit around, afraid to voice an opinion, saying nothing, waiting to know what the consensus is. Just like focus groups, opinion polls or a cabinet.

I worry that we are approaching a time when that which is shocking is squeezed out by the Stalinism of political correctness.

I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power.

The studios have been taken over by marketing people and accountants.

I always wanted to be a rock'n'roll star.

From a writing point of view, you now have teams of screenwriters working with a director. What's lost in the process is the power of that one heart, brain, gut and soul that makes something an original piece of writing.

Cigarettes are not a part of human behaviour, they are a habit.

That's sort of what I felt... I miss drinking, I thought bars were truly holy places.

Politics has become entertainment.

Now on a personal level with things like the California Tax Commission... I really think if people started banding together and saying no to this it could snowball and that could really help.

I like people-watching and fading into crowds.

We tell our triumphs to the crowds, but our own hearts are the sole confidants of our sorrows.

As they marched, the crowds lining the route broke into applause, a sweet and deeply felt spontaneous pattering that was a sort of communal embrace. Welcome home.

The adoring crowds and overwhelming Democratic support in the 2008 election was based largely on joy at jettisoning Bush and the appeal of electing a superbly qualified charismatic African American leader.

You know, to address crowds and make promises does not require very much brains.

I think in New York we had respect and we would pretty much fill up the places where we went, but I never got the sense that we really were Number 1 here in New York among the Latin crowds.

If there is a look of human eyes that tells of perpetual loneliness, so there is also the familiar look that is the sign of perpetual crowds.

I just play to the people I can see. So it's almost like you are playing to the first few rows of the crowd. You can see the faces of the first hundred people, but then it becomes a blur as the crowds disappear over the hill.

She was built for crowds. She has never come any closer to life than the dinner table.

I get very anxious and am scared in crowds and things like that.

We know that Europe loves President Obama. He had adoring crowds. The press loves Obama. The question is how will this date end? Okay? The question is, to what end? Why do they love President Obama? They love his personal story, they love his wife. North Korea, China and Russia don't really care about Michelle's arms and, you know, whether they gave an iPod to the Queen, okay?

In 1982 when I showed up, the average age of the drivers in the series was something like 40, 41. The crowds were small. There was not much prize money. The competition wasn't very tight.

I found myself getting more publicly shy when the gala events and big crowds started. Some people embrace it. To me, it's not worth enough to risk my private life being public.

Where there had been only jeers or taunts at first, crowds come to listen with serious and sympathetic men.

Since that first showing of Foolish Wives I have seemed to walk through vast crowds of people, their white American faces turned towards me in stern reproof.

For me, winning isn't something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.

The street to obscurity is paved with athletes who can perform great feats before friendly crowds.

There are no crowds out there demanding to see smoking scenes in movies.

I always said that when it was time to retire, I would know it, and I would just tip my hat to the crowds.

I'm good friends with The Rock, and I talk to him all the time. And he says that, even though his movie career has taken off, he misses the instant gratification of wrestling, and the live crowds, and I could see being that way myself.

Then you get to be involved with all the people, meet all the beautiful girls, get all the good food, get ready and locked in before all the crowds hit.

When I'm on tour, I'm in a new city every single night, and the energy and the crowds and the kids and the screaming and them knowing every single word of my music and being onstage is such an energetic feeling with a big payoff.

I hate crowds of people pretending to be happy on one night of the year, where they get drunk and obnoxious by the end of the night.

With the crowds on your side, it's easier to play up to your potential.

I love to play smaller crowds with the Rhythm Kings.