But at a certain point, you have to take your influence and find your own voice if you want to become a relevant artist.

That's my advice for indie filmmakers: Marry a supermodel.

It's an enormous wall that's built between you and your dreams. And if every day, you just chip away... It may take ten years, but eventually you just might see some light.

I feel Irish-Americans are the forgotten minority group. Nobody else is making films about them.

I suffer from Irish-Catholic guilt. Guilt is a good reality check. It keeps that ‘do what makes you happy’ thing in check.

I am a big fan of the old Howard Hawks films from the 30s and 40s, I was a big Hepburn and Tracey fan for a while and Woody Allen films that are a very different kind of romantic comedy.

I'm always aware of who my core audiences are and I serve that niche.

I try not to be too plot-heavy and to balance the dramatic with the comedic.

Brothers McMullen' would not be picked up for theatrical distribution now.

Trust your actors. That's why I work with the same actors time and time again. I encourage them to change the dialogue to achieve one thing: keep the characters honest.

You make a movie for 9k for the freedom it allows you.

Rumi himself once said that counterfeit gold is only to be found because there is such a thing as real gold to be copied.

To have a good enemy, choose a friend: he knows where to strike.

Let's be honest about journalists: We find a lot of ways of being wrong.

I don't say my golf game is bad but if I grew tomatoes they'd come up sliced.

There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three.

The essence of your awareness field definitely goes on after death. It goes through death, it goes into non-physical states for a time, and then eventually is pulled back and it reincarnates.

Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely- read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.

History is the product of vast, amorphous and indecipherable social movements.

I think training in comedy, as it were, a history writing comedy, is a powerful tool for anyone.

For me as an actor, daring is to tell the truth - to be yourself, no matter how the world interacts with that.