I had more fun making Traffic than either of the Ocean's films.

I think I'm good at amplifying an actor's strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. And they all have strengths and weaknesses.

When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead.

To me the director’s job is to leave it in better shape than you found it, literally.

If you're sitting around thinking what other people think about your work, you'll just become paralysed.

We [people] are a species that's wired to tell stories. We need stories. It's how we make sense of things. It's how we learn.

I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating...anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us-I think this world would be unlivable without art and I thank you.

You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.

There are three major social issues that this country is struggling with: education, poverty, and drugs. Two of them we talk about, and one of them we don't.

What are the stories you want people to tell about you?

The ought to be a worldwide cultural taskforce that just stops you when you have ideas like combining The Red Desert with an armored car heist movie.

The best reaction to a paradox is to invent a genuinely new and deep idea.

It doesn't mean that much to me to mean that much to you.

Time. Either you are for it or against it. So be here now. Not later.

Do not deride someone's faith simply because you do not share it, Lord Cladent, " Sazed said quietly.

Tax reform should happen rather quickly.

I have never experienced anything like walking out onto the stage of an oversold venue and, before the first note is struck, realizing that there is not going to be enough oxygen for all of us.

Ask yourself what you would do even if you were never paid. That’s a clue to what you should be doing and of course finding a way to be paid for it.

The old emphasis upon superficial differences that separate peoples must give way to education for citizenship in the human community.

By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so called 'diversity' actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist.

You have two ears and one mouth. Use them accordingly.