I make every movie and every scene like it could be my last. That's the only way I know how to make cinema that stands on its feet. I have to treat it like that. It has to be life and death stakes.

The closer you stay to emotional authenticity and people, character authenticity, the less you can go wrong. That's how I feel now, no matter what you're doing.

Anything you could ever want or be you already have and are.

The holy trifecta of directing and filmmaking is character emotion, camera movement and music. When you hit those three, that's magical. That's what I'm trying to do.

I got put on jury duty, which is where I learned how to write.

There's nothing better than an actor who is really, really hungry to show everything they've got.

You know, veterans come home and they may not be bipolar, but after they've been through a war with PTSD or a head injury, their families have a handful when they come home.

That's just how I see things. I think things that are the most dramatic or tragic can also look the most ridiculous and funny. That's part of being human.

The idea that anyone would think their religious ideas make them morally superior is just preposterous.

The gift of life is the gift to suffer sometimes and to embrace it, heartbreak and all.

What do we have in life, really? If we're lucky we get to a certain age, and we have each other. We have the food we like. We have our crazy little rituals. And we have each other.

Focus determines your feelings, which in turn influence your behaviour, actions and your destiny.

[Harper] once told a friend, "I think about strategy twenty-four hours a day, " and it was only a small exaggeration.

It is thus more potent, as well as more economical, to disarm the enemy than to attempt his destruction by hard fighting ... A strategist should think in terms of paralysing, not of killing.

Perseverance may be just as important as speed in the battle for the future.

We finally need to pass a prohibition on anyone who's on the terrorist watch list from being able to buy a gun in America. If you're too dangerous to fly, you are too dangerous to buy a gun.

When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.

When I first toured with Wings things that were said about me were true - I did sing out of tune.

I didn't come here to be average.

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it - and they do enjoy it as much as man and other circumstances will allow.

Are you placing enough interesting, freakish, long shot, weirdo bets?