Each culture has its own form of staged combat, evolved from its particular method of street fighting and cleaned up for presentation as a spectacle, e.g. savate, Cornish wrestling, karate, kung-fu.

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.

I always secretly looked forward to nothing going as planned. That way, I wasn't limited by my imagination. That way, anything can, and always did, happen.

When you know yourself—your strengths, joys, limitations, and fears—you can live in truth and transparency in all areas of your life.

When you review the Central American wars or other Latin American wars, you find that there were dictators and there were insurgents.

To connect with the fairies... go outdoors.

It is doubtful that congress would pass the Bill of Rights if it were introduced today.

It is fun to think about your pet moonlighting as a water delivery man, or a bouncer at a bar. Thinking about your dog out in the world, instead of laying on your bed when you leave, is really fun.

I don't mind if, according to the Law of Evolution, my grand grand grand etc. father is a monkey,but I do mind if he is a hyena or a jackal!

White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities.

Almost everyone today is brain-damaged by our education which is designed to produce docile automatons.

Invention, using the term most broadly, and imitation, are the two legs, so to call them, on which the human race historically has walked.