I look back on my liberal political beliefs with a sort of wonder - as another exercise in self-involvement - rewarding myself for some superiority I could not logically describe.

Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills.

The Oscars demonstrate the will of the people to control and judge those they have elected to stand above them (much, perhaps, as in bygone days, an election celebrated the same).

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.

It is the writer’s job to make the play interesting. It is the actor’s job to make the performance truthful.

Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags.

We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.

People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want.

Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.

When we face pain in relationships our first response is often to sever bonds rather than to maintain commitment.

Death will always be a part of life, and life will always be a part of death

I'm not bothered or sad about being on my own - after all, I've never had a husband.

I bought abandon dearAnd sold all piety for pleasure.My own free spirit I have followed,And never will I give up lust.

I know that right choices by definition are the means by which life crystallizes loss.

A lot of artists don't survive, do they? You work very hard and finally you get what you want and it destroys you.

Every part I get, I just think I'm so lucky. They're so hard to get, you know.

Mankind does not drink alcohol because there are breweries, distilleries, and vineyards; men brew beer, distill spirits, and grow grapes because of the demand for alcoholic drinks.

Conversion is in its essence a normal adolescent phenomenon, incidental to the passage from the child's small universe to the wider intellectual and spiritual life of maturity.

Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist.