Scholarly acumen sharpens taste and judgment, but we must never mistake criticism for art. Intellectual analysis, however heady, will not nourish the soul.

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.

Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.

In comedy laughter settles all arguments.

Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.

She moved to get up, but the man held her down as her car exploded next. Bree lifted her head and looked back at the wall of fire behind them. “Well. We’re well and truly screwed now.

Dreams of innocence are just that

I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.

It's entertaining to watch somebody break my music down or explain what he thinks I was thinking during the process of making these records. Because... he has no idea.

Every idea, extended into infinity, becomes its own opposite.

I love different kinds of movies, and I love different kinds of people. That's the spice of life.

Singing in front of people. It's like having your heart beat outside of you.

Every woman has the instinct, the propensity to profit from her charms, and there's a lot to be said for giving oneself without love, without pleasure.

Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me.

The demand for absolute purity of genres is becoming nowadays an anachronism in literature.