I want to do my own thing, and I'm trying to get closer to realizing that as a filmmaker.

You are what you love. Not what loves you.

I think of myself as a guy who tries to write screenplays and now has tried to direct one. Anything more than that is meaningless and it gets in the way of being a real human being.

I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night and seeing something fun.

The only honest and generous thing for me to do is to give people myself. That's all I've got as an artist, so I want to do that in an unflinching way.

The passionate ones, the ones who go after what they want, may not get what they want, but they remain vital, in touch with themselves, and when they lie on their deathbeds, they have few regrets.

Everything I've written is personal - it's the only way I know how to write.

You and I share the same DNA. Is there anything more lonely than that?

Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention?

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon. Joel: I know. Clementine: What do we do? Joel: Enjoy it.

There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due.

We are more than the worst thing that's ever happened to us. All of us need to stop apologizing, for having been to hell and come back breathing.

Time is the explicable raw material of everything.

I keep my eyes open. I pay attention to how different types of people express their personal style, how they put their clothes together.

The election of Senator Barack Obama brought jubilation across Africa, where millions celebrated him as 'one of their own.'

Take the regular wagon track and never leave it.

I learned the first night that IHOP's not the place to order fish.

We mustn't forget how quickly the visions of genius become the canned goods of intellectuals.

Besides, it's the first gift that's always the hardest to pay back. I wouldn't even have been here to do it if you hadn't helped me then.

I'll take a quiet life, A handshake of carbon monoxide. No alarms and no surprises...

When you make the obvious mysterious, then the mysterious becomes unavailable.