I'm afraid of only two things: being lazy and being cowardly.

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.

An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.

Every living soul is given the grace of existence.

Cruelty is a mystery, and a waste of pain.

The best customer of American industry is the well paid worker.

If you indulge in long periods, you must be sure to have a snapper at the end.

I'm the last person to tell my friends to go see something I'm in. I could care less if friends of mine never saw anything I'm in.

What the advertiser needs to know is not what is right about the product but what is wrong about the buyer.

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.

Have you ever felt as if other people were smarter than you? Quicker on the uptake? Zombies feel this way every day.

I grow as many of our vegetables as I can, because my granddad was a professional gardener, and it's in the blood.