There's a big difference between a movie about relationships and a movie in which people talk about relationships. It seems like a lot of people have confused the two.

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.

When you feel someone else's pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you know you really loved them.

The pen, a double-edged mystery: cuts the writer, heals the reader.

Auto racing is boring except when a car is going at least 172 miles per hour upside down.

Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood.

Your fears are not walls, but hurdles.

I look upon [writing about religion] as a nice way to get by in this precarious world, though I've never been able to do it myself.

Carry an oar when you drive. Three times I've ended up in water.

We develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and obstacles.

I would like to remind the black ministry and indeed all black people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve people's problems on earth.

In the race of faith, stay focused upon Christ, not the other runners, nor the spectators.