Screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.

The secret of the creative life is to feel at ease with your own embarrassment.

Let's just shoot in black and white. Don't explain why. Have no reason for it. Just do it because it's interesting.

If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.

One of the things that I do like about filmmaking is that you find out how to solve new problems.

Once you have a situation that is fresh, then you sort of believe in it and it becomes normal. So you do end up with protagonists that haven't been in other movies before.

Don't ever let the viewer settle in and get ahead of you.

Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.

Those artists who say that somehow therapy or analysis will thwart their creativity are completely misinformed. It's absolutely the opposite: it opens closed doors.

I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!

I want to be happy; why do I do things that make me unhappy?

There are some things you must understand and discover for yourself. And after discovering them, start living accordingly

Character is how you treat people who can't do anything for you in return.Integrity is how you act when you think nobody is looking.

One quick snort and the pharmaceutical worm burrows deeper into my heart.

The proper word for me," Robin Goodman says, "is me.

The Restoration began with the prayer of a 14-year-old boy and a vision of the Father and the Son. The dispensation of the fulness of times was ushered in.

What does it profit a 78-year-old woman to sit around the pool in a bikini if she cannot feed herself?

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching

Give yourself some credit for the work you put in with your own two hands. But remember to never forget the people and things that have helped you along the way.

More and more the world is growing to love a lover, and one has only to read the newspapers to see how sympathetic are the times to any generous and adventurous display of the passions.

My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble.