I was looking for people who didn't have any preconceptions about films, what I call the "post-rules" generation.

The secret of the creative life is to feel at ease with your own embarrassment.

Screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.

Let's just shoot in black and white. Don't explain why. Have no reason for it. Just do it because it's interesting.

If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.

One of the things that I do like about filmmaking is that you find out how to solve new problems.

Once you have a situation that is fresh, then you sort of believe in it and it becomes normal. So you do end up with protagonists that haven't been in other movies before.

Don't ever let the viewer settle in and get ahead of you.

Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.

Those artists who say that somehow therapy or analysis will thwart their creativity are completely misinformed. It's absolutely the opposite: it opens closed doors.

I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!

[Satan] will create a religion without a Redeemer. He will build a church without a Christ. He will call for worship without the Word of God.

This is true, at the least, that no veil of beauty hides the evils from our sight.

It's a great day for Sarah Palin. She was hired as a commentator for Fox News. She signed a multi-year contract, which means she'll probably quit after a year.

You've been here before, you already know how it goes, you chose this, you know, it's supposed to be over

Genetic engineering is a result of science advancement, so I don't think that in itself is bad.

How much should you earn? As much as you possibly can. It doesn't matter whether you earn $10,000 a year or $100,000 a year as long as you've done the best you can.

The Medici created and destroyed me.

In a promise, what you thought, and not what you said, is always to be considered.

I do want to say things in these films. I want audiences to come out with shards stuck in them. I don't care if people love my films or walk out, as long as they have a strong response.

There's no way I could pay you back but my plan is to show you that I understand, you are appreciated