Other than the fact that I like a country house, I can't think of anything I'd want to spend my money on.

It's not easy to strap yourself down to a desk and bash on a keyboard when you know you can direct lots of films, because directing films is fun and interactive and gregarious. Writing isn't.

We're not unique. We're quite volatile as individuals, but that doesn't work exponentially when we are together. Relationships are about eating humble pie.

My principal job is to make interesting and entertaining films, and I'm not proud of which format or which particular technique I use. I just wanted the film to look good.

I'm not under too much of an illusion of how smart or un-smart I am because filmmaking ultimately is about teamwork.

If somebody has a better idea than me, I'll take it if it surpasses what we have on the page because at the end of the day, it's me that takes the credit anyway!

If you change the rules on what controls you... you will change the rules on what you can control.

I got into film-making because I was interested in making entertaining movies, which I felt there was a lack of.

The best thing to do is find one person in your life and try to love them unconditionally. If you've accomplished that, you've accomplished a lot.

We can all be conned but at what point do we realize that we're being conned and to what point do we allow ourselves to be conned?

I think there's a natural system in your own head about how much violence the scene warrants. It's not an intellectual process, it's an instinctive process.

If you're afraid to smile, you're afraid of life.

... the sort of smiles used at weddings, turned on very carefully to half pressure to prevent them wearing out.

In my case, dust has become gold: Today, I work with people I grew up admiring.

Say, it's only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea, But it wouldn't be make believe, If you believed in me.

An open ear is the only believable sign of an open heart.

To entrust to an editor a story over which you have labored and to which your name and reputation are attached can be like sending your daughter off for an evening with Ted Bundy.

The only investment I ever made which has paid consistently increasing dividends is the money I have given to the Lord.

No one ever chats me up; I think they all think I'm taken. Either that or no one fancies me.

The T.D. Jakes Relationship Bible: Life Lessons on Relationships from the Inspired Word of God.

I'm a person who has a lot of energy. So, yes, I don't really stop to rest or de-stress. I just keep going. I figure that if you don't stop, then you'll never notice how tired you are.