Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.

Less is more.

Writing is thinking on paper.

Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.

Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.

Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

Thought is action in rehearsal.

A clear sentence is no accident.

If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.

There was a monster in me that had to be fed by success. There is a monster in us all that has to be fed by something.

Acting is a lot easier than people think it is.

An artist is nothing without his or her obsessions.

If you don't get out of the box you've been raised in, you won't understand how much bigger the world is.

The death penalty symbolizes whom we fear and don't fear, whom we care about and whose lives are not valid.

That's just how I see things. I think things that are the most dramatic or tragic can also look the most ridiculous and funny. That's part of being human.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

I know, a lot of the films I've done, it's obvious I'm going to beat up six guys and just walk out the door. There's not a lot of motivating factors - it's just action for the sake of action.

The greatest Inventions were produced in Times of Ignorance; as the Use of the Compass, Gunpowder, and Printing; and by the dullest Nation, as the Germans.

Don't ever be afraid to step out and do something different.