Generally, the bigger the budget, the less interesting the characters become.

You will never solve poverty without solving water and sanitation.

Now I feel I have an unspoken deal with the paparazzi: 'I won't do anything publicly interesting if you agree not to follow me.'

I think what's important for kids to know is that your decisions here on earth matter, your behavior matters and how you treat other people matters.

If anybody wanted to photograph my life, they'd get bored in a day.

My wife is my soul mate. I can't imagine being without her.

I'm always cautious about overstepping any boundaries. At the end of the day, it's a director's medium, and if they don't want to hear from me I just step back.

Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage

If you can't help people, then what is the point of being successful?

It's just better to be yourself than to try to be some version of what you think the other person wants.

Please find out what you can do to make a difference. Take five minutes to educate yourself on an issue you didn't know about before. Then tell somebody else.

[R]eality and real people are too subtle and complicated for anybody's typewriter, even Tolstoy's, even yours, even mine.

The good writing ideas don’t have to be about political turmoil, mass killings, capitalism, racism, injustice, etc. Find that one idea that has deep roots in your heart.

When men allow other people to ridicule, laugh and jeer at the truth, that cannot but bring sorrow to the heart of God

When you get to a certain age you find that other people’s opinions don’t really matter anymore, and you get kind of uncomfortable with your place in modern life.

The "social contract," in the only sense in which it is not completely mythical, is a contract among conquerors, which loses its raison d'être if they are deprived of the benefits of conquest.

The outrageous is the reasonable, if introduced politely.

I've been a public person for most of my life. It has advantages and disadvantages. I can't take my kids to Disneyland. On the other hand, I can get a table at a restaurant or tickets to a play.

You can't make jazz without using certain elements of Latin music.

And you can't hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit.

As long as I've been playing, they never say I done anything. They always say that some white guy did it.