I was in Japan, and my assistant director had worked with Kurosawa. I used quite of number of Kurosawa's crew.

I look at the story, I look at the idea and just try to think of it in terms of that whole body of myth and see where the characters fit in and what they ought to be doing-all those archetypes are there to play with.

You can't get an actor to do something that is beyond his range, so you have to be aware of the range of the actor and, if necessary, alter the part to suit the actor.

When actors are being defensive and defending their position, that is when you get less than good acting.

It's so easy to manipulate an audience, but it's nearly always clear that you are being manipulated. I think even people that are not critically attuned are aware of cynical manipulation in film.

I only storyboard scenes that require special effects, where it is necessary to communicate through pictures.

All the great legends are Templates for human behavior. I would define a myth as a story that has survived.

I was in Japan, and my assistant director had worked with Kurosawa. I used quite of number of Kurosawa's crew.

There were two sides to David Lean: on the one side, he was kind of a rather stiff, disciplined Englishman. And then he had this kind of romantic side to him. I think being true to both sides of your nature is important.

Whatever may be said against the chewing of tobacco, this at least can be said of it, that it gives a man time to think between sentences.

I grew up in a culture in which it was a sin for a woman to speak out.

Boys do not grow up gradually. They move forward in spurts like the hands of clocks in railway stations.

The last thing I want is for people to say that the music is nice. It's not nice. It sounds good, but it's got grit, and it's got edge. It never veers into sweet.

Italians have always had a high savings rate. They love putting their money into their own government bonds - even more than in houses, stocks and gold. The higher rates climb, the happier they are to invest. So if austerity plans drive rates up, it's music to Italian ears.

It may be a mistake, that man, in a state of nature, is more disposed to cruelty than courtesy.

My background is in acting, so I enjoy being able to show what I'm looking for. With acting, it's very immediate when you show someone what you're looking for, and the feedback is instantaneous as well.

My partner of 45 years is Australian, and a big part of her character is that marvellous quality of irony which Aussies possess. I relish their humour and sense of fairness.

Traditions have been replaced by lifestyles.

We didn't have much money growing up, so we hopped around L.A. a lot in the '70s, '80s and '90s. I'm very familiar with the shifting culture there.

The prevalence of mobile homes does not correspond with the prevalence of poverty, or with much of anything else. All that can be confidently said about America's mobile homes is that they are massed in places where you wouldn't want to be in one. Florida's mobile homes lie athwart the path of hurricanes. Georgia's are in the way of tornadoes.

To be the leading man it's about the celebrity and the looks, and it's tough to do that. People who do it great are people like Tom Cruise and Will Smith - they're built for that. I ain't. I'm more of a character guy.

I'm not the fastest writer. I can't just crank out ideas that are good enough.

Writing is very much a playground - an artistic playground. It's the most fun thing I do.

I get to sing and act and write and create and produce for a living and share art with people, and I feel like a piece of that is in honor of those who came before me.

You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him but you wont succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.

I woke up one morning with this song in my head, and the opening line of the song is, 'My name was Richard Nixon, only now I'm a girl.'

The majority of the time, they take air out of the football. I think that, for me, is a disadvantage.

Just like the rest of the home, the toilet is the place to be considerate of others as well as yourself.

I almost threw up the first time I set foot inside the University of California, San Francisco's Comprehensive Care Center and joined the stream of thin, slow-moving, low-voiced, gray-skinned people. I didn't want to be one of the pitied, the struck-down.

I had the honor and privilege of working with John Ritter.

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Sometimes you get politicians who dig their feet into the sand and aren't willing to listen to another voice.

There was probably something as a child I wanted to express, something unsaid that I needed to share.