As a kid, I had a background in theater.

You are what you love. Not what loves you.

I think of myself as a guy who tries to write screenplays and now has tried to direct one. Anything more than that is meaningless and it gets in the way of being a real human being.

I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night and seeing something fun.

The only honest and generous thing for me to do is to give people myself. That's all I've got as an artist, so I want to do that in an unflinching way.

The passionate ones, the ones who go after what they want, may not get what they want, but they remain vital, in touch with themselves, and when they lie on their deathbeds, they have few regrets.

Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.

You and I share the same DNA. Is there anything more lonely than that?

Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention?

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon. Joel: I know. Clementine: What do we do? Joel: Enjoy it.

There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due.

I reside in an abode where your thoughts imagine me... You reside in my heart where the auricles camouflage my longing...

Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to.

Busted is not the ideal band I'd like to be in by any stretch of the imagination.

He had the blue kite in his hands; that was the first thing I saw. And I can't lie now and say my eyes didn't scan it for any rips.

In general, I wait to be approached. I want to be the one who's hunted, I want to be the one who people take interest in.

If you want peace, work for justice. If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace truth.

Literary prizes serve a purpose if they allow for discussion of books.

The day the army of Virginia allows a negro regiment to enter their lines as soldiers they will be degraded, ruined, and disgraced.

The compliment that I like more than anything is when my family tells me I'm the same Ryan. I never want to become a celeb who forgets about anybody or has a big head about himself.

Our sufferings and weaknesses, in so far as they are personal, are of no literary interest whatsoever. They are only interesting in so far as we can see them as typical of the human condition.