In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.

Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.

In comedy laughter settles all arguments.

Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.

Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.

A compassionate kind can see the animal as a living being, as a friend, as a family, as soul, as an expression of life. Be compassionate.

The story is uneven in its progression.

Alone we can do so little together we can do so much.

I seem to myself, among civilized men, an intruder, a troglodyte enamored of decrepitude, plunged into subversive prayers.

It's clear that science and science fiction have overlapping populations.

There was one public school for boys, and one for girls, but Jewish children were admitted in limited numbers - only ten to a hundred; and even the lucky ones had their troubles.

I love stories and I don't like to repeat myself. And I look for new stuff, and as they say it gets harder.

What stands if Freedom fail? What dies of England live?

A live action movie is work, and an animated movie is you showing up in your pajamas once every three months, or in my case, just a splash of baby powder. It's not any kind of heavy lifting.

Thinking like your prey. . . that's where you find their vulnerabilities.