Even when I begin with a situation that's basically funny or sad, I like to keep poking around in it. I like to get into the middle of a relationship, to explore the subtle places.

California is an island, and New York's an island. Maybe it's time for me to change islands.

One thing I know is that I don't want to be a director for hire, making genre films.

Most marriages I've known, and I've been married a long time and I've known a lot of married people - you wonder how they got together. Often they seem to be opposites.

The one thing that's closest to my story is the thing about trying out for the juvenile delinquent role and getting it. That was the start of my acting career... which I've resumed, by the way.

If you cast wrong, you are in a lot of trouble.

Almost every actor goes into almost every picture very frightened. He is positive he really can't do it. The bigger the star, the more frightened he is.

I don't like movies that are morally simple.

I've rarely met couples who - they both love to do everything together.

I wish in my own mind I were more definite - that I was absolutely convinced I'd never direct someone else's script, but I keep reading scripts, because I might find something.

I wonder if that's hurt me at the box office. Maybe audiences these days want to know exactly what to expect when they go into a movie, and my movies are hard to explain in just one way.

A human's best training is with his shadow. You have to fight with your shadow.

He comments on how amazing it is that everything in the universe can be described by the twenty-six written characters with which they have been working.

A father's disappointment can be a very powerful tool.

Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another check-out line.

That's the beauty about love. It's not about give-and-take - it's about feeling safe in one's needs - wanting to be looked after as much as wanting to look after.

I want to succeed. And I want to succeed in the best way possible, without caring whether people call my actions leftist or rightist.

We’re as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we’re not likely to do either.

I'm proud to be one. I feel a lot stronger, a lot sexier and I think that all of that is reflected in my music.

A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.