In nature, if a cell gets too big, it divides. You can't come up with a set of rules that's going to work for 350 million people. You're just not.

I think I'm good at amplifying an actor's strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. And they all have strengths and weaknesses.

When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead.

To me the director’s job is to leave it in better shape than you found it, literally.

If you're sitting around thinking what other people think about your work, you'll just become paralysed.

We [people] are a species that's wired to tell stories. We need stories. It's how we make sense of things. It's how we learn.

I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating...anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us-I think this world would be unlivable without art and I thank you.

You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.

There are three major social issues that this country is struggling with: education, poverty, and drugs. Two of them we talk about, and one of them we don't.

What are the stories you want people to tell about you?

The ought to be a worldwide cultural taskforce that just stops you when you have ideas like combining The Red Desert with an armored car heist movie.

We are always in the process of becoming. Self-identity is a fusion of our prior decisions and our current thoughts.

Attitude distinguishes between a winner and a loser.

No one wants to hear my perspective on politics, but I think honestly as you get older, you get more interested in it.

The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. … The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.

The only power that has any real meaning is the power to better the world.

Jesus wants to give you peace.

Everyone can get a little sloppy with cash and it's smart to notice. But what's squeezing you is the big stuff you ladle onto your credit cards.

America has never been a pure democracy and majoritarianism has always been as much feared as monarchism.

It was as though she was an exile from a world that saw things her way

I'm more critical of the films I make than anyone else.