Don't assume I'm dumb because I wear a suit and tie.

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.

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care

The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak

I’ve never been this nervous before. Why aren’t you here yet?

Now I can do no more. We must trust to the Great Disposer of all events and the justice of our cause. I thank God for this opportunity of doing my duty.

A prototype is a question embodied

The more self-aware an animal is, the more empathetic it tends to be.

When you have to deal with a beast, you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true.

That's why they call you Seer. You see more than most.

I don't want marriage. You know why? Because I did that. I did it for 32 years.

The bible is the cradle that holds the Christ, without him it is nothing more than wood and straw.