Finally, Colin Farrell showed up on my doorstep, only he wasn't Colin Farrell - he was just this Irish kid who had read the script and wanted to do it.

Good dialogue illuminates what people are not saying

In dramatic writing, the very essence is character change. The character at the end is not the same as he was at the beginning. He's changed-psychologically, maybe even physically.

The straight roads are the roads of progress, the crooked roads are thee roads of genius.

You're dumber than you think I think you are.

Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water.

I'm not in business to be loved, but I am in business.

Larry Grobel senses there are no answers in life, only questions. Good ones.

And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made.

But time has caught up with it and I think vindicated it. Shampoo, too: very dark, very ambitious movie.

I'm not supposed to be the one that's caught with his pants down.

Dreaming is good, but actions are better. Actions are what transform dreams into reality.

To see your friend's dreams come true, there's really nothing that can make you happier.

Roses by the head, jasmine at the feet so appear the longings that have passed without being satisfied, not one of them granted a night of sensual pleasure, or one of its radiant mornings.

Either you push forward with the things that you were doing yesterday or you start dying.

I can die anytime I want. I wish I could do the same with life.

There's a difference between the blues of the New Orleans guys and anyone else and the difference is in a chord, but I can't figure the name of it. It's a different chord, and they all make it.

In every life there is a perfect moment, like a flash of sun. We can shape our days by that, if we will - before by faith, and afterward by memory.

You always have to finish what you start and I learned that some of life's greatest lessons come with disappointment.

Numbers rule the universe.

If you have a surreal life like I do, you've got to have fun along the way.