I think one of the privileges of being a filmmaker is the opportunity to remain a kind of perpetual student.

I have nothing against diamonds, or rubies or emeralds or sapphires. I do object when their acquisition is complicit in the debasement of children or the destruction of a country.

There is no reason why challenging themes and engaging stories have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, each can fuel the other.

It's always great to do a movie that you find is entertaining, but also can give some sort of political or social message.

I don't think movies can ever be too intense, but people have to understand why you're showing them the things you are showing them.

You do these movies, you give it out to the world and you really have no idea how people are going to react to you.

However much I may like to talk about or be interested in a more philosophical or moral agenda, [film] is, ultimately, about narrative. And it's about telling stories that are engaging and dramatic.

I never thought about that ever throughout the entire course of my career about choosing a specific role because it would make me seem more man-like.

I've been in plenty of situations where I thought the film would turn out one way or my performance would be looked at one way and it was an entirely different situation.

There is a segment of the American population that has been excluded from the national myth, and that should be redressed.

People who have any kind of illness use humor as a type of coping.

Women are so unforgiving of themselves. We don't recognize our own beauty because we're too busy comparing ourselves to other people.

The single woman is a free woman, and being single does not mean being alone - it means being free to have a relationship or not. This can be scary, but it's also very interesting.

About half the practice of a decent lawyer is telling would-be clients that they are damned fools and should shut up.

A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

People praise you for what they suppose is in you; but you must blame your soul for what you know is in it.

Coffee: we can get it anywhere, and get as loaded as we like on it, until such teeth-chattering, eye-bulging, nonsense-gibbering time as we may be classified unable to operate heavy machinery.

We have to make a mark, even if it's only a scribble.

Every man loves two women;the one is the creation of his imagination and the other is not yet born

The panoplied warrior of truth and nonviolence is ever and incessantly active.

The law does not generate justice. The law is nothing but a declaration and application of what is just.