Particularly [Alfred] Hitchcock, who takes his time with everything he says. There's a controlling way in how he speaks because he takes his time to finish all his sentences.

It's always very strange to have your life dramatized because it never happens like that. Things will be different.

You can't deny reality just because you can't explain it.

They know you're not Alfred Hitchcock, but you need to be enough Alfred Hitchcock for them not to be bothered by it. That's a reassuring thing.

I often get sent scripts about little men in big situations. There's a comic element to it, which is forces stacked against this little guy, and how is he going to defeat them?

I don't know if it's harder but when you're playing a real person you want to honor their memory - even if they're a criminal or someone that the public loathed. That can be challenging.

One key element to Hitchcock is the drooping jowl. That was crucial because his silhouette is crucial. There is something about his silhouette that became his brand.

I'd love most of the movies I make to be four hours long.

There are far more good actors than there are jobs for them, so it's a big question of luck.

There's not a huge pile of scripts at home. It's what happens to be on the table at that moment with your availability. And then you have no control over when these things come out.

Certainly for my father, there were great times, good times, not-so-good times. He might be shooting a Fellini film for six months, then not working for two months. I'm used to that dynamic.

Rhetoric abounds in the cemeteries of reason.

The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th century science has been the discovery of human ignorance

I want to be like a Supernova

The message [of Donald Trump ] is that if anybody lives in those circumstances in this country, that's something that the government should be working to try to change.

If we discovered that we only had five minutes left to say all that we wanted to say, every telephone booth would be occupied by people calling other people to stammer that they loved them.

I think that for the next short period of time, our No. 1 priority is Congress needs to do its work and extend the payroll tax cut.

The people don't take baths and they don't speak English. No golf courses, no room service. Who needs it?

My patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all-embracing and I should reject that patriotism which sought to mount the distress or exploitation of other nationalities.

I never base a character on someone I know. You can get ideas from real life, but every character you write is some aspect of yourself.

[A] person is so much more than the name of a diagnosis on a chart.