The subject of drama is The Lie. At the end of the drama THE TRUTH -- which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied -- prevails. And that is how we know the Drama is done.

Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills.

The Oscars demonstrate the will of the people to control and judge those they have elected to stand above them (much, perhaps, as in bygone days, an election celebrated the same).

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.

It is the writer’s job to make the play interesting. It is the actor’s job to make the performance truthful.

Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags.

We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.

People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want.

Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity.

Her heart was leading her where it belonged. To him.

No real excellence, personal or social, artistic, philosophical, scientific, or moral, can arise without solitude.

Photography is not something you retire from.

We challenge one another to be funnier and smarter. ... It's the way friends make love to one another.

Even in a righteous cause force is a fearful thing.

Anger makes us all stupid.

Paris is a mighty schoolmaster, a grand enlightener of the provincial intellect.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 96% how I react to it.

We should never lower our dignity by lowering our language.