I do watch 'It's a Wonderful Life' with my children at Christmas, and I liked it long before it went into the public domain and became a cliche.

I have nothing against diamonds, or rubies or emeralds or sapphires. I do object when their acquisition is complicit in the debasement of children or the destruction of a country.

I think one of the privileges of being a filmmaker is the opportunity to remain a kind of perpetual student.

There is no reason why challenging themes and engaging stories have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, each can fuel the other.

It's always great to do a movie that you find is entertaining, but also can give some sort of political or social message.

I don't think movies can ever be too intense, but people have to understand why you're showing them the things you are showing them.

You do these movies, you give it out to the world and you really have no idea how people are going to react to you.

However much I may like to talk about or be interested in a more philosophical or moral agenda, [film] is, ultimately, about narrative. And it's about telling stories that are engaging and dramatic.

I never thought about that ever throughout the entire course of my career about choosing a specific role because it would make me seem more man-like.

I've been in plenty of situations where I thought the film would turn out one way or my performance would be looked at one way and it was an entirely different situation.

There is a segment of the American population that has been excluded from the national myth, and that should be redressed.

If we were rational enough to judge what we are fed based on what we are fed, those in the business of selling us hope (i.e., public speakers, presidents, priests, etc.) wouldn't wear suits.

Your say is not yours unless you say it

I do not consider myself beautiful.

I'm bipolar, but I'm not crazy, and I never was. I'm stark raving sane.

One reason you are stricken when your parents die is that the audience you've been aiming at all your life - shocking it, pleasing it - has suddenly left the theater.

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

I cant solve the poverty problem, but there are things you can do to mitigate its effects on kids.

Every kind of reward constitutes a degradation of energy.

When I'm on the net, someone always wants to chat with me. But outside of MySpace, it's a completely different world. I don't get recognized that much on the street.

We have already begun taking concrete steps to change the structure of our economy and, as we have discussed a great deal, to give it a more innovative quality.