I grew up as a reader as well as a movie-lover, so many of the novelists I admired - and so many of the great filmmakers I loved - were self-taught.

I had a checkered early career, for sure, with a lot of very unhappy experiences where pictures got taken away, re-cut, re-titled... all the nightmares one hears about.

What you care about [movie] is whether it's moving you, or whether you're caught up in it.

Hollywood, of course, is the city of illusion.

You can dress it up, but it comes down to the fact that a movie is only as good as its script.

Whereas to write, all you need is paper and an idea, so I felt that writing might be my stepping stone.

Self-awareness and self-esteem. Those aren't female issues, those are human issues.

Put simply, there are many people who want to make movies and very few opportunities for them to do it.

Consequently, it's so gratifying to then make a picture that's successful and gives you leverage to have better circumstances than you've ever had, before the next time out.

Consequently, their school [film-school ] was the school of life, and it was very much reflected in their work.

You can imagine what it was like for me to actually be sitting in a room with matching typewriters, working under the tutelage of this guy I so admired, both as a filmmaker and as a man.

The road to success is always under construction.

Trying to change someone, and their views, is like throwing paper into a fire.

A shaft of sweetness shoots through me from top to toe when the sun rises

Dark nights are unpleasant, " "Yes, for strangers to travel, ""The clouds are heavy.""Yes, a storm is approaching.

Winners, I am convinced, imagine their dreams first. They want it with all their heart and expect it to come true. There is, I believe, no other way to live.

Instead of being a teacher, I got a job with a company called Bain & Co., consulting firm, and they taught me how to build businesses.

If we own the story then we can write the ending.

I don't like to come at my character from some really technical place.

Bacon is like the opposite of medicine. It's like, "Take that, Lipitor."

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.