Make the audience wonder what's going on by putting them in the same position as the protagonist.

Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills.

The Oscars demonstrate the will of the people to control and judge those they have elected to stand above them (much, perhaps, as in bygone days, an election celebrated the same).

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.

It is the writer’s job to make the play interesting. It is the actor’s job to make the performance truthful.

Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags.

We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.

People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want.

Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.

If He is God, He is still in charge.

I drank through the buzz of befuddlement into perfect clarity and out again into the blissful confusion of true intoxication.

I think, domestically, one of the most interesting things that you would see under Presidenr Hillary Clinton is going to be the big energy infrastructure transition.

For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?

We lose things all the time. We lose ourselves every day. We lose our minds occasionally. But it's just a part of life, loss.

I should be grateful for the tough times because Allah chose me, thought I was good enough to go through it.

Can't pick and choose when you're gonna be a leader. If you're gonna be it - gotta do it every day.

It's OK to have wealth. But keep it in your hands, not in your heart.

The devil did not make me do it. I managed it all by myself.

Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.