Americans have no past, so they buy the pasts of others.

He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.

A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.

Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.

Objects exist and if one pays more attention to them than to people, it is precisely because they exist more than the people. Dead objects are still alive. Living people are often already dead.

People like to say, 'What do you mean exactly?' I would answer, 'I mean, but not exactly.'

I don't think you should feel about a film. You should feel about a woman, not a movie. You can't kiss a movie.

Photography is truth...and cinema is truth 24 times a second.

To live in society today is like living in one enormous comic-strip.

"Away, away," says hate. "Closer, closer," says love.

Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man.

All four of us were young and undaunted and our smiles were so strong that it made me smile even then on the couch, with a kind of loss.

How we respond to tragedy is the hallmark of character. Suffering a great loss places us at a spiritual milepost. The wind of our souls can either sour and wither or rejoice and thrive.

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks.

Vanity's ridiculous, but we all fall prey to it from time to time.

I would say that now I'm somebody who goes to church.

....we ain't doing civil rights here. We just telling stories like they really happen.

I live a pretty conservative life, so I probably really haven't done anything crazy.

On snowboarding as an Olympic sport: Since I was 6 years old I've been in the mix and watching this grow and change. I never would have expected it to go this far.

Beginning 'Beloved' with numerals rather than spelled out numbers, it was my intention to give the house an identity separate from the street or even the city.

I know I probably should be sad about my mother's cancer... but she still hasn't seen The Last Kiss, you know?