For years all I seemed to be doing was lobbying politicians and others to persuade them that European culture needed movies, and that we had to protect it.

I'm getting a little bored by the juxtaposition of American and other cinema. I no longer think this division is as true as it might have been in the 1980s, or the early part of the 90s.

Without dreams, there can be no courage. And without courage, there can be no action.

Take opera for example - to go to the opera you have to dress up in a tuxedo and pay lots of money.

My advice is, don't spend money on therapy. Spend it in a record store.

Every photo, every 'ONCE' in time is also the beginning of a story starting 'once upon a time...' Every photo is the first frame of a movie.

Film is a very, very powerful medium. It can either confirm the idea that things are wonderful the way they are, or it can reinforce the conception that things can be changed.

The more opinions you have, the less you see.

I think sometimes you have to just imagine something that looks pretty impossible. By imagining something that is impossible, automatically you wish you could make it possible.

Photographs put time into such a perspective. They humble us and our selfish memories.

Any film that supports the idea that things can be changed is a great film in my eyes.

There is grace for every good action.

The first guitar I ever got was for my 13th birthday.

Seeing Michelle Obama's bright color choices, and how she made people smile and reinforced Obama's platforms of hope and change, was inspiring.

Silence is the wit of fools.

There's nothing particularly wrong with being more pessimistic than optimistic. Optimism is broad-based, non-detail-oriented thinking; pessimism is detail-oriented thinking.

The fact that you touched somebody's soul or made them laugh-that's a wonderful thing.

Daylight reveals color; artificial light drains it.

Walter Matthau made all the big money and he was wonderful as Oscar Madison on the stage. You couldn't beat him. I know because I replaced him on Broadway. He was just delightful.

I would quarrel with both parties, and with every individual of each, before I would subjugate my understanding, or prostitute my tongue or pen to either.

Daydreams were dangerous because they made her wish for things she could never have.