The traditional models for success are just also disappearing.

I think I'm good at amplifying an actor's strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. And they all have strengths and weaknesses.

When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead.

To me the director’s job is to leave it in better shape than you found it, literally.

If you're sitting around thinking what other people think about your work, you'll just become paralysed.

We [people] are a species that's wired to tell stories. We need stories. It's how we make sense of things. It's how we learn.

I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating...anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us-I think this world would be unlivable without art and I thank you.

You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.

There are three major social issues that this country is struggling with: education, poverty, and drugs. Two of them we talk about, and one of them we don't.

What are the stories you want people to tell about you?

The ought to be a worldwide cultural taskforce that just stops you when you have ideas like combining The Red Desert with an armored car heist movie.

The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably

The great risk of living is that we might not survive it.

Every devil used to be an angel

Our athiests are pious people.

Christians believe that God is everywhere and is involved in our lives at every moment, whether we publicly acknowledge God or not.

Everybody hurts some days. It's okay to be afraid. Everybody hurts, everybody screams. Everybody feels this way.

I know I live a charmed, beautiful life and nobody wants to hear a celebrity whine. The last thing I want to do is complain; I love what I do and I know every job comes with a downside.

Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved.

Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.

Long and long has the grass been growing, Long and long has the rain been falling, Long has the globe been rolling round.