I worked as hard to write the worst film of the year as I did to write the best film of the year.

Its such an egotistical thing to be able to just stand there and say, Action! Its like being a little mini-god.

It's okay to lie as long as you reach a higher truth doing it.

Its as boring to see a completely evil villain as it is to see a completely good guy.

As much as I love period movies and especially more swashbuckling movies, I think that sometimes they tend to be, umm... it's hard for the audience to relate to them.

If Im in the bookstore, and I see a 700-page novel, my first thought is, Ooh, how could you cut this down to size and make a movie out of it?

I think test screenings with an audience are useful because they have no dog in the fight, they just say how they feel.

In exchange for ten years of being on top, I'm gonna end up in prison or I'm gonna end up dead, and there's something fascinating about that.

I think writing is a difficult thing and you need to suffer a little bit, even if it's just to sit there and think what an idiot you are and how anyone else could do this better than you can.

Because I've been at it so long and very steadily, I have a lot of credits, but I probably have twice as many scripts that were never made for whatever reason.

In my own experience, the scripts that I wrote, if they didn't go within two years and become a film, they never went and no one ever came looking for them.

There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.

One of the golden rules of success is to treat everything like a competition.

Persistence is self-discipline in action.

I have a really hard time stepping out of a limousine and confronting a sh*tload of photographers who are all screaming at you, because it's like saying, 'yeah, yeah, here I am!'

Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean you're wrong.

I had a brother who was my savior, made my childhood bearable.

If God is the master of the universe, then what are we? The slaves of the universe? If so, let each man become proud Spartacus!

"What would you do if I kissed you right now?" I stared at his beautiful face and his beautiful mouth and I wanted nothing more than to taste it. "I would kiss you back."

All my friends are Welsh, I speak Welsh, and I feel very Welsh.

I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!