The best stories infuse wonder.

The greatest story commandment is: Make me care.

Use what you know. Draw from it. It doesnt always mean plot or fact. It means capturing a truth from your experiencing it, expressing values you personally feel deep down in your core.

Don't give [the audience] four; give them two plus two.

I never think about the audience. If someone gives me a marketing report, I throw it away.

Loneliness is, I think, people's biggest fear, whether they are conscious of it or not.

Frankly, there isn't anyone you couldn't learn to love once you've heard their story.

That's what great art does - it inspires other artists to do great art, and that's what it should do.

Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty.

Change is fundamental in story. If things go static, stories die.

A strong theme is always running through a well-told story.

She was afraid of heightsbut she was much more afraid of never flying.

...Gentlemen don't understand anything, however wise they may be.

My dad is a writer, and to see him always in front of a typewriter gave me the inspiration to write. He was my idol, my hero. I wanted to be just like him.

To be smart, spend carefully. To be wise, save regularly. To be genius, give extravagantly.

I don't think that anybody really makes films quite like mine. That's maybe true of any filmmaker.

Leaders are not pale reflectors of major social conflicts; they play up some, play down others, ignore still others.

It was not possible to broadcast any of that because of an agreement between Jackson and the family [of the child]. Our legal advice was that we could not broadcast it.

They [FBI] had a lot of clippings, a lot of articles I'd written. And to me the - the funniest one was - I had done a piece for Playboy about J. Edgar Hoover.

I love that ["Big Little Lies"] is about women coming together and making something happen very quickly, with friendship being the core of it.

Whoever thought the immediate alternates with the immediate action is not an abstract painter.