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.

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.

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.

I mean, it's not surprising, really. Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's, like, part of you for good.

Education is the mother of leadership.

The idea of a Chicago band that wanted to sing songs about California is really funny. Having never been to California.

An enemy is anyone who tells the truth about you.

It wouldn't be fair to cast aspersions on an entire cultural movement based on the actions of a few. To quote my grandfather, 'One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch.'

I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is

I never punched in anything when I recorded Imaginaryland. Where the title came from is a whole other story.

I passed beyond the unreality of the thing represented, I entered crazily into the spectacle, into the image, taking into my arms what is dead, what is going to die.

The essence of analysis is surprise. When people are themselves surprised by what they say, that's when they are really making some progress.

Salander's fingers emerged like something dead from beneath the earth. Had there been any human watching, he would probably have reacted like the fox. He was gone like a shot.