I don't think I've had a lonely moment in my life.

You are what you love. Not what loves you.

I think of myself as a guy who tries to write screenplays and now has tried to direct one. Anything more than that is meaningless and it gets in the way of being a real human being.

I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night and seeing something fun.

The only honest and generous thing for me to do is to give people myself. That's all I've got as an artist, so I want to do that in an unflinching way.

The passionate ones, the ones who go after what they want, may not get what they want, but they remain vital, in touch with themselves, and when they lie on their deathbeds, they have few regrets.

Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.

You and I share the same DNA. Is there anything more lonely than that?

Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention?

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon. Joel: I know. Clementine: What do we do? Joel: Enjoy it.

There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due.

The sun might be God. God might not watch us at night.

There's always a person for every book. And a book for every person.

Secrets are truths that show what we’ve been through—what we’ve survived.

I was just thrilled to get the gig to begin with. Ten years later to still have it is not only thrilling but also somewhat of a puzzlement.

Over my desk hangs a poster from The Railway Children that my husband had framed for me. It is so lovely to see the children smiling as they run down the railway track.

We have finished the job. What shall we do with the tools?

People blush when one of their core truths is revealed.

Big whorls have little whorls Which feed on their velocity And little whorls have lesser whorls, And so on to viscosity.

It's a great challenge to come from little New Zealand and beat the odds in Hollywood.

If it's not broken, break it. That's how new discoveries are made. That's why everything that changes life is called a breakthrough.