My first lessons in comedy, how to construct a joke, I learned from Eileen Brennan, who had unbelievable timing.

I wouldn't go back on my old days, though; everybody needs to have their wild years. It's just a question of when and I'd rather have had them early than be doing it as a mid-life crisis type thing.

Can someone explain the vitriol whenever Ayn Rand comes up? 'Atlas' is the greatest motivator for the individual that I can imagine.

Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census.

I was sick of playing high-school kids. I liked being a teenager, but I would not go back for all the tea in China.

The '80s were about trying to establish myself as an actor with a career. And being a teenager enjoying the fruits of being successful with lots of what I think is appropriate for that age.

Be funny whenever possible, even if some people don't get it.

We always reminisce about how everyone tried to get Diane Lane's attention, to very little success.

Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself.

People have a responsibility, especially with today's media, to read between the lines.

Fake confidence on the outside often trumps truthful turmoil on the inside.

I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust em.

Of course, like all film-makers I've been mesmerised by cinema since I was a child.

Boundaries, and countries, if we don't have that we are all brothers and sisters, we can all have love and joy and compassion for each other: the world would be much more beautiful.

As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world.

Anything I've done up till May 27th 1999 was kind of an illusion, existing without living. My daughter, the birth of my daughter, gave me life.

You're up to something," I said. He turned, eyes wide, long fingers pressed to his heart. "Moi?" "Yeah, you.

When one questions [Dalai Lama's] political actions, it is worth remembering that he's the single most experienced politician on the planet at this moment.

I was actually kind of a hot mess in high school. I did a lot of things in high school I'm not proud of. I wasn't a good student and I wasn't particularly a good daughter. I wasn't very engaged.

Well, my type is obviously creative. Creative, with burning eyes and a pretty mouth.

A writer is a maker, not a man of action: his private life is of no concern to anybody but himself, his family and his friends.