To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.

Less is more.

Writing is thinking on paper.

Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.

Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.

Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

Thought is action in rehearsal.

A clear sentence is no accident.

If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.

God’s word is lamp that lights my path.

When you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain...

An actor really is a kind of intermediary between an audience and the piece, whether it's a play or movie.

Here's a shock: An adult who still hangs out in skate parks is a bad parent.

The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.

Some of the most frantic lies on the face of life are told with modesty and restraint; for the simple reason that only modesty and restraint will save them.

I've always admired your ability to be unilaterally irritating.

The camera is your way to see what you want to see - it's an extension of the director's fantasy. I'm executing my personal fantasy, whether it's a fantasy of pleasure or of pain and fear.

In a media-saturated world, persistent hype lends unwarranted credulity to the wildest claims.

When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.