It was always hard to find stories that I felt were, in and of themselves, fresh enough and intriguing enough .

One of the great things about being a director as a life choice is that it can never be mastered. Every story is its own kind of expedition, with its own set of challenges.

Confidence is preparation in action.

If I had to choose between a great acting job and a good directing job, I'd choose the directing job.

Humor is unavoidable. It might not feel funny in the moment, but more often than not there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Death can be experienced once, winning maybe more, but losing can happen all the time.

I've just looked for ideas and great characters that I relate to and that I think I can offer something to the audience, and I no longer look at them as experiments or genre exercises at all.

I think the most important thing really was that you could take very personal ideas and present them to an audience in entertaining ways.

There's a very real argument that the minute we are capable of going to a planet, whether it's Mars or another one, and inhabiting it, that we really should.

I'm not a caterer. I just have to stay with my creative convictions. At some point, you have to just get past the special-interest groups and do what you're there to do, which is make a movie.

You're always a little surprised when something really takes off.

Truth is on the side of the oppressed.

I find that if you just talk, your mouth comes up with stuff.

Be oblivious to city high-rises, work-related stress and microwave popcorn.

The Law is hard, but it is the Law.

I'm grateful for everything. I'm grateful for my health, and I'm so grateful for the love in my life.

As a feminine cocreator, having lived through the arc of evolution from 1929 to the present, I offer encouragement and vocational arousal to all!

I mean, how many men would have gone on to the floor of the House as Carolyn Maloney did and wear a burkha to show the fight of Afghan women.

You know those drugstore kits that tell you when you're pregnant? They should have one that tells you when you're sane.

You can seduce a man without taking anything off, without even touching him.

And maybe now you'll start treating everybody with respect. Not just the people you think are important.