I think one of the major things a director has to do is to know his subject matter, the subject matter of his script, know the truth and the reality of it. That's very important.

My three Ps: passion, patience, perseverance. You have to do this if you've got to be a filmmaker.

A Mac is a closed box, so Apple can make decisions about things that they don't include. That makes, it in some ways, simpler for them.

The Sand Pebbles has always been one of my favorite films, I suppose because its the most difficult film - from a physical and logistical standpoint - that I've ever made.

You look back on films sometimes and if they have not been as all-out successful as you anticipated you try to find reasons why maybe it didn't come off for audiences as well as you would have liked.

Sometimes funny is all you've got.

Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination.

When writing dialogue, I hear it in both Russian and English, and try to find a language that combines the two.

Nature's solution to pollution is dilution.

. . . personal soundness is not an absence of problems but a way of reacting to them.

Mysteries are due to secrecy.

In solitude we become aware that we were together before we came together and that life is not a creation of our will but rather an obedient response to the reality of our being united.

Most benefactors are like unskillful generals who take the city and leave the citadel intact.

Jill: 'I don't pay attention to politics.' Ben: 'You should. It's barely less important than your own heart beat.' Jill: 'I don't pay attention to that, either.'

Acting can be a very reactive profession. Acting is a fantastic thing, and it's my life, but writing is also part of me too, so I did it and in so doing took responsibility for my own life.