I had an older brother who was very interested in literature, so I had an early exposure to literature, and and theater. My father sometimes would work in musical comedies.

I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.

When I was about 9, I had polio, and people were very frightened for their children, so you tended to be isolated. I was paralyzed for a while, so I watched television.

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before?

I used to love going into local hardware stores, to look at little things they made locally. Nowadays it's harder, though you can still do it in Vietnam.

There's nothing creative about living within your means.

Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

We were raised in an Italian-American household, although we didn't speak Italian in the house. We were very proud of being Italian, and had Italian music, ate Italian food.

You don't have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.

If the movie works, nobody notices the mistakes... If the movie doesn't work, the only thing people notice are mistakes.

I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.

We stand strong, or we cower. We emerge victorious, tempered by our trials, or fractured by a permanent, damming fault line.

Trust me, I would love to have a wife and kids. I would very much enjoy that. But I also know that you have to be in the right place to do that.

Hospice means end-of-life care. The admission ticket is a diagnosis from a doctor that you have six months or less to live.

The innocent moon, that nothing does but shine,Moves all the labouring surges of the world.

One of the most important things a person can learn to do is to make something out of whatever he or she happens to have at the moment.

Death is the only physician, the shadow of his valley the only journeying that will cure us of age and the gathering fatigue of years.

Gary Cooper was a good friend. He was a great nature lover. He was like an American Indian, he knew every leaf that was turned over. It was an education to go for a walk with him.

Writing a funny story is one thing. But writing a funny story that inspires others to venture beyond their level of comfort in pursuit of their greater good is what makes me come alive.

I'm a complete coward in real life.

If you're going to do a guest spot on television, they need bodies on those procedural TV shows. You've got to keep working, and that's where a lot of the work is.