I never go back over something I've done and I never watch them again.

The minute you become a leader of a country, you go into a very small club. You join that sort of pantheon of other world leaders.

If you have distance from the events, then your story can work as an analogy or parable, rather than its literal narrative.

To what degree are historians chroniclers of the truth and to what degree are they just novelists, frankly?

Firms are a bit concerned about things like oil prices and US growth but actually the change (in firms expectations) is quite small so I think broadly theyre looking for more of the same.

I wrote 'Hereafter' quickly and without mapping it out too much or being too schematic. As an exercise, I think that was incredibly important.

Generally, I read nonfiction. Theres very little fiction that I enjoy enough to spend my time reading. I am generally a nonfiction guy.

Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure.

I just try and do something good. But as a writer, you're slightly out of control.

I am not a politics wonk. I like the idea of my writing reflecting more about who I am or other people.

The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers.

The world is moving at a slow pace. Each day I get up and I feel the world must have moved ahead far but, unfortunately, it remains at the same point each day.

Though sleep was dearly needed, it was not welcomed, for even in sleep I was tormented.

The work is more important than the talking and the writing about the work.

You seldom come across anything more enjoyable than a happy person.

And so while dreams are the individual man's play with reality, the sculptor's art is (in a broader sense) the play with dreams.

No man does right by a woman at a party.

I feel like I've helped create a new standard of hustle for defensive linemen.

I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.

Death ... doesn't take her eyes off us for a minute, so much so that even those who are not yet due to die feel her gaze pursuing them constantly.

Love and war, it seemed, worked by the same rules. One had to hurry, before the fires flared out.