The great movie can be as free of being a record of the progress of the protagonist as is a dream.

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.

But I do know which is the least popular. The truth.

The trick is finding a person whose flaws don't drive you crazy...you know...someone whose flaws you can live with...someone who can stand your flaws, too.

Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.

The universe began in an instant, is expanding, and exhibits design, order, and complexity. Every effect must have a Cause, and design must have a Designer.

He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy.

Well, I love geraniums, and anybody who does not love geraniums must obviously be a depraved and loathsome person.

The wages of pedantry is pain.

I'm mad at him, too, for being out late. But I'm not mad enough to take a chance on losing a ball game and possibly the pennant.

Nature appears not to have intended that any flower should be fertilized by its own pollen.

I do a lot of ceramics.