The dirty secret of art is you don't have to show people your bad writing. That's what we have the delete key for.

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

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

Life is chaotic and meaningless, and you have to find your meaning. You must find the answer, you can't just live. That's the point of story: helping you find your meaning in life.

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.

God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

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.

You know how I get angry sometimes? That's because it's the only way I can still feel. And I need to test myself, to make sure I'm really here.

In this world without quiet corners, there can be no easy escapes from history, from hullabaloo, from terrible, unquiet fuss.

He got me a cup of tea with honey, toast with honey, yogurt with honey, like I was John the Baptist with the flu.

To survive there, you need the ambition of a Latin-American revolutionary, the ego of a grand opera tenor, and the physical stamina of a cow pony.

Hello," Magnus said to the monkey. The monkey did not reply. "I shall call you Ragnor.

I got pulled over when I was behind the wheel of a Porsche in Philly once for what we call DWB - Driving While Black.

More men feel comfortable doing "public speaking," while more women feel comfortable doing "private" speaking.

The three roles that I have always admired are Valjean, Phantom and Jesus and I've enjoyed them all so much.

The facts, gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching.

The poetry, if you will, of life is reduced to this sort of dry, scientific, you know, it's the worst sort of précis of who we are.