Having a phone call from Steven Spielberg was just a fantastic rite of passage. I loved it, and he was very focused, very likable, strictly business, and really sharp.

The minute you become a leader of a country, you go into a very small club. You join that sort of pantheon of other world leaders.

If you have distance from the events, then your story can work as an analogy or parable, rather than its literal narrative.

To what degree are historians chroniclers of the truth and to what degree are they just novelists, frankly?

Firms are a bit concerned about things like oil prices and US growth but actually the change (in firms expectations) is quite small so I think broadly theyre looking for more of the same.

I wrote 'Hereafter' quickly and without mapping it out too much or being too schematic. As an exercise, I think that was incredibly important.

Generally, I read nonfiction. Theres very little fiction that I enjoy enough to spend my time reading. I am generally a nonfiction guy.

Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure.

I just try and do something good. But as a writer, you're slightly out of control.

I am not a politics wonk. I like the idea of my writing reflecting more about who I am or other people.

The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers.

You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.

Pride does not only come with great responsibility. It is buy one get one free. Great responsibility will require great resourcefulness.

I am what my past allows me to be.

You never lose friends. You just discover who your real friends are.

When we all pass from this life and gather on the other side, the only thing each of us will have is his own story to tell.

Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.

We need to take on the new media, and in terms of power and public pedagogy, we need to organize a whole range of people outside of the academy.

Hindsight is the historian's necessary vice.

You might be a redneck if you celebrate Groundhog Day because you believe in it.

The epic poet collaborates with the spirit of his time in the composition of his work. That is, if he is successful; the time may refuse to work with him, but he may not refuse to work with his time.