My favorite love scenes in movies don't involve passion, they involve nobility or sacrifice.

Every great film should seem new every time you see it.

No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.

One difference between film noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines.

To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.

You can have a movie with hardly any cuts, or very few cuts, that is fascinating, you can't take your eyes away from it... Look at some of the long takes in Citizen Kane.

I lost faith in the Oscars the first year I was a movie critic - the year that Bonnie and Clyde didn't win.

I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.

I think we have to get beyond the idea that we have to categorize people.

What every human being should do is eat a vegetarian diet based on whole foods. Period. That's it. Animal protein is bad for you. Dairy is bad for you. Forget the ads: Milk and eggs are bad for you.

I do not fear death. I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.

Beauty lies in simplicity.

We will make ourselves comfortable and sleep, and eat as much as we can stuff into our bellies, and drink and smoke so that hours are not wasted. Life is short.

The whiskey kicked like a mugger.

If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.

But that is the thing about miracles: it is perception that determines them as such, not facts.

A 60-story tower in New York evokes a 70-story tower in Chicago [and] a 60-story tower in New York evokes a 70-story tower directly across the street.

Women are the ones that bear the greatest burden. We are also the ones who nurture societies.

It's fun to deal with the terror and the huge highs and lows of things. We're still getting massive surprises, every time you have any kind of Twilight-related event or anything.

Americans have the right to choose to be unarmed and helpless. Be my guest.