Jack Nicholson is fairly gifted. We were at the Sistine Chapel, and everybody went from looking straight up to looking across the room at him.

Cat lovers turn into cat collectors.

When I look back on my childhood, I think of that short time in Beirut. I know that seeing the city collapse around me forced me to grasp something many people miss: the fragility of peace.

Part of filmmaking is always a guessing game, and part of it is always a game of trust.

She is such a scene-stealer. She's got these lashes and big eyes, and when she walks on to the set everybody just says "ooh."

I don't consider a lot of actors that I really admire movie stars.

I was just a quiet kid, really. I wasn't the class clown at all.

If you're working on a movie, you want it to be projected on the largest tapestry possible, and the sound to be perfect, and for that kind of communal experience of the movies to take place for it.

I really don't make a concerted effort to try to find a type of role.

I've never had a clear road map. When things come along, I benefit.

I can't not find humor in elements of most parts of life, but at the same time nothing ever seems perpetually funny to me.

Without thinking, he reached for her hand. Tucked it against her chest, feeling that was where it should be. Perry's heart slammed against his ribs. She had to feel it.

May you the willpower and chase your God-given dreams.

If you have nothing but joy in this life, you are still rich.

I was a typical teen growing up in the 1960s, when everybody was into gurus and meditation.

I do feel that in modern society that still is the best way to survive. Whatever it is, just keep doing something, because complete stillness or inactivity is more like death than death.

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

My son lives in Nicaragua. My daughters live in the United States.

You're lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal world.

I want to find people who have had to work hard and who have learned from their failures. Perseverance is no guarantee you’ll succeed, but without it, it’s almost guaranteed you won’t.

We hear all around us about practical religion, and analysing all that, we find that it can be brought down to one conception - charity to our fellow beings.