No one should feel sorry for a successful screenwriter.

A reversal is just anything that's a surprise. It's a way of keeping the audience interested.

Everyone I know who used to be in the intelligence community is moving into the corporate world.

Ambiguity depletes as your budget rises.

I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence?

You have to know human behaviour … And the quality of your writing is absolutely capped at your understanding of human behaviour. You’ll never write above what you know about people.

The people in the Philippines are so extraordinarily nice.

No one can help you write. No one can teach you how to write.

Different people work different ways.

Fear changes everything. We're animals, and when we get afraid we act like animals. I'm not exempt from that.

I never really like it when other writers talk about coming in behind people and rewriting.

The number of ways to live in one lifetime is limitless. So why limit yourself?

Surprises, I feel now, are primarily a form of violence.

I've been here so long . . . when I got here the Dead Sea wasn't even sick yet.

He divines remedies against injuries; he knows how to turn serious accidents to his own advantage; whatever does not kill him makes him stronger

Beauty is merely the Spiritual making itself known sensuously.

I want people to think about everyone in their life, and their responsibilities to their friends, their families and their country.

When a trout rises to a fly, it does not swim as much as tilt its fins and jet skyward.

There aren't a lot of roles in period movies for black people. It sucks because I love that era. But, I love musicals. I love the show Glee, and I wouldn't mind being on that either.

Being on top of the world doesn't mean anything unless you know what it's like to be at the bottom.

People no longer know how to apologize, which is particularly noticeable among athletes, politicians, and entertainment figures.