I know a lot of directors have a whole staff of people trying to find their next film for them. I always just end up writing mine.

Its such an egotistical thing to be able to just stand there and say, Action! Its like being a little mini-god.

It's okay to lie as long as you reach a higher truth doing it.

Its as boring to see a completely evil villain as it is to see a completely good guy.

I worked as hard to write the worst film of the year as I did to write the best film of the year.

As much as I love period movies and especially more swashbuckling movies, I think that sometimes they tend to be, umm... it's hard for the audience to relate to them.

If Im in the bookstore, and I see a 700-page novel, my first thought is, Ooh, how could you cut this down to size and make a movie out of it?

I think test screenings with an audience are useful because they have no dog in the fight, they just say how they feel.

In exchange for ten years of being on top, I'm gonna end up in prison or I'm gonna end up dead, and there's something fascinating about that.

I think writing is a difficult thing and you need to suffer a little bit, even if it's just to sit there and think what an idiot you are and how anyone else could do this better than you can.

Because I've been at it so long and very steadily, I have a lot of credits, but I probably have twice as many scripts that were never made for whatever reason.

Family is more than blood

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.

Clever talk can confound the workings of virtue, just as small impatiences can confound great projects.

Healthcare has been much worse. George W. Bush was destroying the health care system. Obamacare, all it's like doing is keeping prices from going up more rapidly.

Probably because I'm bald. Don't the bald people always play doctors and principals? Yeah, isn't that funny? And lawyers. A lot of lawyers and judges.

There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves.

Just about anyone can pass if they have a home computer and are a quick study.

Faith is taking God at His Word.

If I'm going to die, I want to still be me

Drunkenness was in good repute in England till "Bloody Mary" frowned upon it; it remained popular in Germany. The French drank more stably, not being quite so cold.