I was just a quiet kid, really. I wasn't the class clown at all.

Cat lovers turn into cat collectors.

When I look back on my childhood, I think of that short time in Beirut. I know that seeing the city collapse around me forced me to grasp something many people miss: the fragility of peace.

Part of filmmaking is always a guessing game, and part of it is always a game of trust.

She is such a scene-stealer. She's got these lashes and big eyes, and when she walks on to the set everybody just says "ooh."

I don't consider a lot of actors that I really admire movie stars.

If you're working on a movie, you want it to be projected on the largest tapestry possible, and the sound to be perfect, and for that kind of communal experience of the movies to take place for it.

I really don't make a concerted effort to try to find a type of role.

I've never had a clear road map. When things come along, I benefit.

I can't not find humor in elements of most parts of life, but at the same time nothing ever seems perpetually funny to me.

We all have to lead double lives, not just celebrities. The face we put on publicly with our jobs and certain situations. I think that's part of the human condition.

..there was a moment when the living room vanished and I saw a great, mushroom-shaped cloud rising into a blue sky. I saw it quite distinctly.

I Only Believe What I See But I Question Everything I Hear

Tonight Must Last Us Forever

[Misquotation; not by Einstein.] If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. [Apparently remorseful for his role in the development of the atom bomb.]

The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.

If you're smart, you often want a feedback loop so you know if what you've done is... is right.

Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.

A life on the ocean wave! A home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters rave, And the winds their revels keep!

One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen.

I'm sad for adults who want to be children. And children who want to be adults.