There is no reason why challenging themes and engaging stories have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, each can fuel the other.

I have nothing against diamonds, or rubies or emeralds or sapphires. I do object when their acquisition is complicit in the debasement of children or the destruction of a country.

I think one of the privileges of being a filmmaker is the opportunity to remain a kind of perpetual student.

It's always great to do a movie that you find is entertaining, but also can give some sort of political or social message.

I don't think movies can ever be too intense, but people have to understand why you're showing them the things you are showing them.

You do these movies, you give it out to the world and you really have no idea how people are going to react to you.

However much I may like to talk about or be interested in a more philosophical or moral agenda, [film] is, ultimately, about narrative. And it's about telling stories that are engaging and dramatic.

I never thought about that ever throughout the entire course of my career about choosing a specific role because it would make me seem more man-like.

I've been in plenty of situations where I thought the film would turn out one way or my performance would be looked at one way and it was an entirely different situation.

There is a segment of the American population that has been excluded from the national myth, and that should be redressed.

People who have any kind of illness use humor as a type of coping.

You haven't lived life to the fullest until you've found something worth dying for

It seems I am doing all the right things, when it comes to love, to the wrong people.

At every juncture, advanced tools have been the key to a new wave of applications, and each wave of applications has been key to driving computing to the next level.

To be developed as a leader, failure must be allowed. Failure only helps us improve.

There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.

All the earth, though it were full of kind hearts, is but a desolation and desert place to a mother when her only child is absent.

A piece of advice I would give to young actors - hang on to your family, and hang on to your reality - and hang on to your "real". Because you're going into the land of make believe.

I much prefer to watch actors and writers create "humanizing" moments for characters. In a drama, "humanizing" is far more impactful and powerful than "redeeming."

It can't be dead. It was alive just a minute ago.

It is with books as with the fires of our grates, everybody borrows a light from his neighbor to kindle his own, which in turn is communicated to others, and each partakes of all.