I'm attracted to short screenplays. Nobody really wants a film to be over two hours, or at least I don't.

What is filmmaking but groping in the dark?

If you were falling in love and you could go back in time and relive a day and see the banal things you did that you'd forgotten about, you'd weep, looking at that day.

I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor.

I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.

There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.

You just never know when you're living in a golden age.

The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.

A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs.

I think cynicism lasts. Sentimentality ages, dates quickly.

If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie.

You haven't learned anything until you learn to learn everything.

Fair play is an English word. It is not a French word, and it has been copied all over the world. Unfortunately, it does not function any more here.

Stop and take your time to notice things and make those things you notice matter.

I think Nancy Reagan felt so judged all the time and she felt so unlovable.

I never used to be as good, you get better. I've just gotten better and quicker at figuring out the joke.

The suburban cycle which began a hundred years ago is nearly over. We are in for a period of contraction and economic hardship.

I was running from God, but I didn't know I was running from God. I didn't know that.

I think if you play music and you join a scene you're already too late.

Smell can conjure up memories for me stronger than any other sense. Especially childhood memories. Perhaps because you were that much shorter and therefore closer to the ground and its smells.

Taking responsibility means not blaming yourself. Anything that takes away your power or your pleasure makes you a victim. Don't make yourself a victim of yourself!