Sometimes, if you leave yourself open, an actor can bring nice nuances to a character.

When you do a studio picture, all the paperwork and legal stuff is already taken care of!

Theres so much diversity of opinion out there, so ultimately you have to listen to it, put it aside, and make what you want to make.

After I script the movie, I have to storyboard it out, I have to budget it, and I have to understand if I can afford all those visual effects or not.

There are trappings of science fiction which I kind of embrace, but there are also cliches which I run from.

In all my science fiction movies, I try to blend the familiar with the futuristic so as not to be too off putting to the audience. There is always something familiar they can grab onto.

To come up short when you reach too far is not such a bad thing rather than not to reach at all, right?

Strangely, I always have a lot of cut scenes. I keep writing shorter and shorter scripts, thinking that this time, I'll get all my scenes in.

If I know what my finale is when I'm writing a screenplay, then I don't always have to chart out every scene before that. I can adequately find my way. I'm experienced enough to do that.

I guess you don't make any franchise movies unless the fans are there.

I don't want to have so much humor [in films] that it undermines the jeopardy, but enough to sometime relieve tension.

A Prayer was like a tickle.Sooner or later God would have to look down to see what was tickling his bum.

[T]he more critical lesson I learned that day is still one too many kids never figure out: don't be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.

When I used to gamble, I looked for players with head covers on their irons. Those guys I could beat.

I have seen the future and it's like the present, only longer.

It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.

There are some nights when sleep plays coy, aloof and disdainful. And all the wiles that I employ to win its service to my side are useless as wounded pride, and much more painful.

War,--the trade of barbarians!

I am madness maddened when it comes to books, writers, and the great granary silos where their wits are stored.

Why will no man confess his faults? Because he continues to indulge in them; a man cannot tell his dream till he wakes.

Realize that if you can instantly create a problem, you can just as quickly and easily create a solution.