Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.

Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.

In comedy laughter settles all arguments.

Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.

Still, it was fair to say that the minimum requirement for a truly enjoyable existence would be unbridled promiscuity.

in so far as we cherish the tangibles, we must value the intangibles. The intangibles, though as latent as they may seem to be, they are solemnly tangible.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases it will never pass into nothingness.

The key to freedom is accepting my own autonomy as an individual, and respecting the autonomy of other individuals, with all of what that means - whatever that means.

If there's a heaven, I can't find the stairway

Well, I'm British. I'm proud to be British and I love this country. I'm going nowhere.

President Bush fell off his bicycle this weekend and you know what was really sad? It's a stationary bike.

I don't put myself on Jeff Beck's level, but I can relate to him when he says he'd rather be working on his car collection than playing the guitar.

The American culture especially, and Western culture in general, urges us to not only become the best that we can be, but also win against the competition.

I want someone to say, "I love you and that's all I really know." That's the girly girl in me.