Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock do romantic comedies. I do dark dramas. I do these movies well.

Part of me longs to do a job where there's not a gray area.

It's an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That's always been a tug of war for me.

I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the stone age.

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.

Being understood is not the most essential thing in life.

I've always had this idea that I wanted movies to make people better not worse.

Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting, and of all relationships.

Let how you live your life stand for something, no matter how small and incidental it may seem.

Privacy above all else. Some day, in the future, people will look back and remember how beautiful it once was.

Knowing what paint a painter uses or having an understanding of where he was in the history of where he came from doesn't hurt your appreciation of the painting.

Be more wary of the fearful than of the brave.

Letting people be okay without us is how we get to be okay without them.

Tell me about yourself - your struggles your dreams your telephone number.

Im not an American but I have always had the outsiders respect for the American people and the American way.

Isen wasn't a two birds with one stone kind of guy. More like one stone, two birds, a rabbit, a fox, and maybe that deer will trip over the fox and we can get him, too.

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

Though my books are written from a historical perspective, I have goon so far back that I am in the realm of prehistorical speculation rather than simple historical fact to weave my stories around.

I'm useless when I meet writers I love - I go slack-jawed and stupid with awe.

Worse, I have to admit to feeling the jealousy of one crab for another that has managed to climb out of the barrel.

Be governed by your internal compass, not by some clock on the wall.