But, unfortunately, sometimes that affirmation creates a sense that you deserve special treatment and recognition in areas where you're not so talented.

I really believe you can predict when someone has a great attitude, a real well of talent.

I feel very comfortable shooting music, and I think you can see that.

The SAS is the most elite of the special forces in the world. They are not people who go out and advertise; they keep it inside. They don't want anybody to know about them.

You'd be surprised how many movie stars still care about the work.

It's very clearly stated in the film: You make your own choices, and what you're always fighting is ego.

I make films about working class people.

But, unfortunately, sometimes that affirmation creates a sense that you deserve special treatment and recognition in areas where you're not so talented.

It isn't glamorous until after the film is finished, and you are at the premiere and getting your picture on the cover of magazines.

I also know what looks good before the camera, how to move the camera, and how to get a story on the screen.

We all get paid very, very well, and we have responsibilities.

If people are worried about the size of their trailers, I kind of say their priorities are off.

I try to get the best performance an actor can give.

An actor has to embody a role.

This devil loves mankind because men are going to always make the choice that will send him into ascendancy. He's been winning the game for a long time.

Ray Charles, in his own way, it's like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.

And it's a question of how far we're willing to go in order to let the ego shine, in order to let that beacon penetrate not only the local scene but the world.

But a writer's contribution is literary and a film is not literary. When you take that stuff off the page, and cast the people who are going to fit into those roles, that's what being a director is.

It's much easier to work with an unknown.

Russell Crowe is very difficult, but it's worth it. He's the real thing. I can tell you this. Russell Crowe was just as difficult before he was an international star as he was afterwards.

Well I don't think I've scored my life exclusively to Ray Charles.

The whole concept of the devil is a metaphor on one level.

It was the era of Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson; they all had a certain look.

Look at Walter Huston in The Devil and Daniel Webster: It's an incredible performance.

Show business is one of those things that people can use to get themselves out of the lower rung of society.

My creative partner is a writer, and he's got an executive producing credit on this film. We've made three films together and I would never underestimate the impact of a writer.

When I finish a film, I put it away and I never look at it again.

Music has always been an important thing to me in my life and understand I've worked in the music business.

But the process of making a film is not glamorous. Certainly not my films.

Because when you have millions of people with this kind of need for gratification, and the culture is saying that it's possible for everyone to satisfy all of their needs and desires all of the time, there are obviously going to be clashes - clashes of ego.

The director's job should give you a sense of music without drawing attention to itself.

I'm not in front of the camera, they are. I encourage them; I build up as much of their confidence and ego as possible. They've got to take control; I can't act it out.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.

That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise.

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.

Success is a process, a quality of mind and way of being, an outgoing affirmation of life.

But, unfortunately, sometimes that affirmation creates a sense that you deserve special treatment and recognition in areas where you're not so talented.

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.

Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.

Choosing one's leaders is an affirmation that the person making the choice has inherent worth.

The emancipation of women is practically the greatest egoistic movement of the nineteenth century, and the most intense affirmation of the right of the self that history has yet seen.

Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.

The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation.

In the face of severe partisan divisions, a still floundering economy, and two foreign wars, "yes we can" is at risk of becoming this generation's "a chicken in every pot." That is, a punchline rather than a political affirmation.

You will be a failure, until you impress the subconscious with the conviction you are a success. This is done by making an affirmation which "clicks."

Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideals, not the negation of others. Dare to the level of your capability then go beyond to a higher level.

Americans are fascinated by their own love of shopping. This does not make them unique. It's just that they have more to buy than most other people on the planet. And it's also an affirmation of faith in their country.

Christianity and Judaism are united above all in their common affirmation and implementation of the moral teaching of the Hebrew Bible, or 'Old Testament,' and the traditions of interpretation of that teaching.

I'm an artist; affirmation is like catnip to me.