I came to New York to be an actor and I became a film producer first.

Although there was a screenplay, the actors never knew what questions I was going to ask them, and all of my character's voice-over narration and scenes were added after the fact.

Documentaries have always inspired me in narrative filmmaking.

New York means so much to people. If you're inclined to leave the nest, New York is where most people think they have to go, and it's been that way since the first skyscraper.

My hunger and desperation, being an actor, an out of work actor - my memory of that is as fresh as an open wound.

I'm in five guilds; that's a lot of dues to pay. So I have to keep on working.

I'm being told it saves money to shoot in Toronto, because of tax benefits, the crews are cheaper, but what I save in the bottom line, I lose in a million other ways.

As a director, I've been able to combine with what I've learned as an actor and as a producer: it melds quite nicely into what I feel like I should have been doing all along.

I've always been schizophrenic; I've never been interested in limiting myself.

On every movie I’ve done as a director, I look at the producers and having done it, I don’t envy them, at all.

I met Steve McQueen once. Well, met isn't really the right word.

A clever quote opens new paths in the minds of the clever!

Liberty is about our rights to question everything.

Appearance is valued too much in our society.

The connectedness of things is what the great university is all about, and I believe the great university in the coming century will be described as a community of scholars.

I love Gossip Girl. I used to hang out with Blake Lively and Jessica Szohr. I'm also addicted to Bravo and reality shows like Top Chef.

When someone you love dies, you don't lose them all at once. You lose them in pieces over time, like how the mail stops coming.

My philanthropy is no relation to anybody else's. None. My philanthropy and what we do at the foundation speaks for itself and has no relation to anyone's.

It's very easy to fall in love when things are great, but the way to really fall in love is when things aren't great.

The more we are guided by eternal considerations in our conduct, the better we will manage our mortality.

This is what I want in heaven... words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies.