You never want to make a "message movie," but you always want to be talking about something that you care about.

Belgrade has kind of a Dublinesque, dear-dirty charm.

My favorite sci-fi always uses its hook to amplify some bigger theme or idea - some emotional thrust.

Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open.

If you make something interesting, inevitably not everybody is going to like it.

You go from these high hopes when you're writing to just a desperate want of not making a complete fool of yourself by the end of it.

All my favorite movies are somebody else's least favorite movie.

You come out of each movie just thinking, "God, if we can fool them into letting us make just one more, we can get it right."

Writing sucks. I think it's terrible. Writing is not fun, and don't trust anyone who claims to enjoy it. Liars!

Writing in a lot of ways feels more like excavation than construction. It feels like you're uncovering this thing bit by bit, discovering what it is, instead of constructing it upwards.

Showing your movie to an audience... it's like your kid doing a piano recital. 'Just let it not fail. Please.

I used to be a conservative.

Always expect something to go wrong," he told him. "Believe me, if you're wrong, you're not dissapointed. If you're right, you're ready for it.

How the hell can a person go to work in the morning And come home in the evening and have nothing to say

There is no passion that is not finely expressed in those parts of the inspired writings which are proper for divine songs and anthems.

We should be able to refuse to live if the price of living be the torture of sentient beings.

I think we should want all of our cities to become more compassionate places, frankly.

Sincerity: willingness to spend one's own money.

Prayer feeds the soul - as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul - and it brings you closer to God.

I never said I was a genius. I never said I was a cornerstone. I've never said I'm a legend in my own time. You never heard me say nothing like that.

Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always.