We have common enemies today. It's called childhood poverty. It's called cancer. It's called AIDS. It's called Parkinson's. It's called Muscular Dystrophy.

I call it like I see it. I don't hold back when it comes to being candid on the hot issues.

Five days a week my body is a temple; the other two, it's an amusement park.

I believe in financial retirement. I don't necessarily believe in physical retirement.

If you're not having fun - I don't care what you're doing - don't do it. Move on. Find something else, life's too short.

I was never really sure what I wanted to do - I'm in awe of these people who knew at age 10 or 12 they wanted to be a brain surgeon, and they did it, and they still are.

Money is only a vehicle that provides you with options, and I say there's only one thing that money can't buy - poverty.

When you're 23, 24 years old and somebody's given you a credit card and jets and limos and you don't have to pay the bill when it comes in - that's a pretty nice deal.

Brooklyn, when I was growing up, was awesome. It was stoopball and stickball - a lot of kids... the baby boom generation were all in the area. It was just a really great place.

I'm not sure what I want to do when I grow up, or if I'm sure I ever want to grow up. I'm sure there are people that wish I would, but you know, my mom will get over it.

An intelligent person can rationalize anything, a wise person doesn't try.

Sometimes love cut so deep it causes terrible pain, or crosses paths with the joy of his present experiences.

TEETOTALER, n. One who abstains from strong drink, sometimes totally, sometimes tolerably totally.

In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what's going on, but it's representative.

To the extent that I come from a deeply religious tradition and have been contending with those beginnings all of my life - that constitutes the subject of much of my early fiction.

Discovering the 'impossible' ending to a new book makes me sick with joy and relief.

No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.

It almost makes the secrets more important, those few things you actually do choose to keep to yourself.

3D really altered the way I shot the movie completely, and it was exciting because, after 20 years of filmmaking, I felt like I was making my first movie, all over again.

If someone asks you to make a cup of coffee, make the best cup of coffee they’ve ever had, because why would they trust you with anything else if you can’t do that? No task is too small.