The better the script, the less money there is. That's just the economics of the studio system.

In a cement park across the street is this giant sculpture. It is a giant umbrella frame lying on its side. It's green. Stand under it, during a rainstorm, you'll still get wet - that's why it's art.

People are usually pretty hungry after a funeral. I guess it's because we all realize that time is running out and we better eat all we can. Please don't mention that to my mother.

I feel like there's a certain kind of laughter missing in the world.

I don't want to write my life. I live my life. I want to make up a new world.

I want to write stories that don't help you escape life, but embrace life.

There is nothing more depressing than toast that no one eats.

People love conversation, and movies are conversations, and an audience has to participate; it has to fill in some blanks.

I spent so many years trying to become an actor, trying to be a person that I wasn't.

I want to make accessible movies for bright people, but I don't want to play games and be coy.

The bigger the budget, the less an audience is trusted, and that's the difference between a big-budget film and a small-budget film.

They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds.

Above all, avoid falsehood, every kind of falsehood, especially falseness to yourself. Watch over your own deceitfulness and look into it every hour, every minute.

I am not belittling the brave pioneer men but the sunbonnet as well as the sombrero has helped to settle this glorious land of ours.

Never trust anyone who doesn't drink coffee.

The painful things seemed like knots on a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place.

Without community, there is no liberation.

I don’t like goodbyes, NBC does.

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

Only in very recent times has the average man been a source of savings.

Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.