True stories are always good because they're so odd, and so unlikely.

The story [of Allied] stayed with me, like a stray dog outside the office, waiting.

I think that helps because there has been no formality of friendship, the politeness of friendship, so we can just work directly on the work that's ahead of us [with Tom Hardey].

If you've read something brilliant, it's good. It's good to look out the window and see what's going on in the world.

In terms of how [Allied] looks, it's fantastic and much better than I had hoped because it's so lush and so beautifully executed.

It's always good to have a world that people don't know about - a world that hasn't yet been done. It's like treading on fresh snow. You're the first one there.

No screenplay is possible, unless you get some attachment from somebody who's going to get it made.

Sometimes you take something because it's an offer and it's big and it's good money and you have to absolutely respect that process, because it's not easier.

I've realized that the only thing I'm interested in is the performance. If the performance is right, then I'm happy. You offer up the dialogue and then the performance comes around.

There's lots of different ways of writing stuff and lots of different mindsets to have, but I think when it's your own creation, it's more pleasurable because you have total control.

Sometimes if you're a director, you want to believe that you're great and capable at all aspects - the technical side, the lights, everything - but I'm not.

Love, built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.

Churchill kept perspective on the crowds that gathered to hear him speak by conceding they would be twice as big if gathered to see him hanged.

Allowing a friend to careen toward self destruction is not friendship. That is a habit the United States needs to break as it pursues a richer and more deeply supportive relationship with Israel.

I try to remember that the job - as well as the plight, and the unexpected joy - of the artist is to embrace uncertainty, to be sharpened and honed by it.

The Winter Solstice is the time of ending and beginning, a powerful time -- a time to contemplate your immortality. A time to forgive, to be forgiven, and to make a fresh start. A time to awaken.

There is no such thing as a natural golfer but you become one by hitting thousands of balls

One phrase summarizes the horror of hell. "God isn't there."

That sorrow which is the harbinger of joy is preferable to the joy which is followed by sorrow.

They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people.

There's something to be said for being classically trained on piano, but not having your whole makeup be tied to one instrument.