Conservatives believe in smaller government and in the power of the electorate. So I think that we're less likely to try to use a dramatic forum to warp people's political views.

Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills.

The Oscars demonstrate the will of the people to control and judge those they have elected to stand above them (much, perhaps, as in bygone days, an election celebrated the same).

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.

It is the writer’s job to make the play interesting. It is the actor’s job to make the performance truthful.

Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags.

We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.

People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want.

Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.

The easiest way to have a peek behind the curtain is to learn from those that are ahead of you.

Writing is hard, but the more you write, and enjoy what you write, the better it gets.

People from the rock and roll world have felt for years that electronic music had no soul, but now electronic music can not only have soul but have all the shapes in the world.

I just broke up with my girlfriend because I caught her lying. Under another man.

The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.

The air smelled of paper and dust and years.

The only way to cultivate a quiet mind is by planting seeds of silence.

My job is to try and bring attention to places that don't have it

You live in the present and you eliminate things that don't matter. You don't carry the burden of the past.

Once trust is tarnished, it is hard to restore it to its original glow.