One thing I know is that I don't want to be a director for hire, making genre films.

California is an island, and New York's an island. Maybe it's time for me to change islands.

Even when I begin with a situation that's basically funny or sad, I like to keep poking around in it. I like to get into the middle of a relationship, to explore the subtle places.

Most marriages I've known, and I've been married a long time and I've known a lot of married people - you wonder how they got together. Often they seem to be opposites.

The one thing that's closest to my story is the thing about trying out for the juvenile delinquent role and getting it. That was the start of my acting career... which I've resumed, by the way.

If you cast wrong, you are in a lot of trouble.

Almost every actor goes into almost every picture very frightened. He is positive he really can't do it. The bigger the star, the more frightened he is.

I don't like movies that are morally simple.

I've rarely met couples who - they both love to do everything together.

I wish in my own mind I were more definite - that I was absolutely convinced I'd never direct someone else's script, but I keep reading scripts, because I might find something.

I wonder if that's hurt me at the box office. Maybe audiences these days want to know exactly what to expect when they go into a movie, and my movies are hard to explain in just one way.

You only spoke a single line, yet it felt like a life sentence.

Adam Smith's huge failure was the fact that he did not foresee the industrial revolution.

Many people erroneously think they have only one chance to succeed, and if they miss that chance, they are doomed to failure. In fact, most people have several opportunities to succeed.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

It's a weird job because making music or writing a song is a personal thing... and it kind of has to be. You can always tell when people are faking.

As a young person, I wanted everyone to agree with me.

Saddam Hussein is dead, and Osama bin Laden is dead. If you’re Moammar Gadhafi, living in exile is starting to sound really good.

I say I have a midlife crisis every time I start and finish a record.

Great is journalism. Is not every able editor a ruler of the world, being the persuader of it?

I didn't follow any rules at all. I made my own.