I've never had a plan, I've always done things from instinct.

We would go down to Riverside, California, which is very poor now, but that's where my grandfather grew up. He grew up during the Depression in Riverside.

I didn't know the city at all, but I was so happy to be in New York I cried. I was so excited.

I like movies about women behaving badly, because women behave badly just like men, and we're not always adorable and cute about it.

You keep learning how to let go and to live the life that you actually have, as opposed to the life you thought you were going to have.

I like things that look like mistakes.

Let your characters talk to each other and do things. Spend time with them - they'll tell you who they are and what they're up to.

I’m not saying that everyone needs to be celibate, but you don’t need a romance to complete a story about a woman

I feel like most people aren't either/or, they're both/and. You're both magnanimous and petty. You're both kind and cruel. You're never just one thing.

I had dreams, but I didn't have the sense that they would necessarily work out. They seemed very far-fetched.

You feel sadness for time passing. New York is a city that keeps reinventing itself, and I love it so much.

Why is there always this twitchiness, when you introduce a man to a woman friend, about whether the man will be bored or put off?

To feel such a longing for his own life, even as he’s living it—he wonders what that means.

For me, hearing my voice is sometimes a little nauseating, especially at Christmas.

I believe that through knowledge and discipline, financial peace is possible for all of us.

The only thing worse than being on the wrong side of an argument is to be on the right side with no one listening.

I try to be a person of faith.

I was doing that [a collaboration with Kurt Cobain] to try to save his life. The collaboration was me calling up as an excuse to reach out to this guy. He was in a really bad place.

I would explain to my children very simply that the defense of liberty is a cause that exacts a very high price in the history of humankind.

Heaven is where God dwells. It is a specific place; a place of unparalleled tranquility and beauty. It includes the new heaven and new earth.

I love working with young people and young filmmakers, and I love working on first films. I think it's cool. It's fun. I just take it as it comes.