If you do not bother to take the time to compose and to light properly, then you end up with something almost less than reality. You end up without the soul, the heart, the art of the moment.

I like to say that lighting is about taking the light away. I often like to use the shadows more than the light.

For me, movies should be visual. If you want dialogue, you should read a book.

There is something missing in a lot of digital filmmaking, something I call "poetic reality." That's something you see played out in film noir, where the technique establishes the mood.

You can't just stick with what you know, you have to evolve.

The best way to know when there's good lighting is when you don't notice it.

As the cinematographer is usually more visual than the director is and full cooperation is really the answer and to make a great film, you need a good director and you need a good cinematographer.

I'm always looking in the lighting to tell the story in a different way than it actually looks in real life because it's, for me, more contrast sometimes has to mean it's softer than normal.

I hope that film is going to stay as an artform and that people won't forget that there are good movies also to be made.

I think film is about images. Cinema needs good images. I think that if you don’t have good images, it’s not going to be a good film. I think all films should be really visual.

There is something more to "reality" than just the tangible. There is also mood, and you cannot skip that.

Self-respect is nothing but self-confidence.

Their faces were inches apart now, and he traced her lips with one finger, lightly, lightly, then placed his lips there as if he’d drawn them into being.

It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom.

We have got so many regulatory laws already that in general I feel that we would be just as well off if we didn't have any more.

less real than such threats as a man with a gun, a woman with a knife, or a U.S. Senator with an idea.

I was more of a Star Wars kid, actually. I always thought Star Trek was a lot of talk, and it felt a little self-important. It was hard for me to get into it.

I learned a long time ago in Hollywood that the only person I should vote for is myself.

It's so easy to get caught up in your own self-doubt when you're writing. It can be so easy to tell yourself, "Who am I kidding?"

I want to feel good, I want to feel proud, I want to feel that I give someone enough and that I get enough.

Most people would not want to live where there are no churches but many people live as though there were no churches.