When I'm my own editor, there's very little difference between the first draft and the final. I write what feels right to begin with. I rarely make any major changes.

A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else.

Art is always in the eyes of the beholder. Only posterity has the right to point out our mistakes.

It all depends on which side of the desk you're sitting on.

I always wanted to fire rays out of my fingertips.

I think jazz and comic books are probably the two uniquely American art forms.

In general, shorter is better. If you can encapsulate your idea into a single captivating sentence, you're halfway home.

A writer writes. Period. No matter if someone is buying your work or not.

Unfortunately, there are writers whose only concern is how good they could make themselves look on a title.

I realized the only thing I owed my audience was my own judgment and my own best effort.

I've had editors over the years who couldn't find a clue if it was stapled to their butt.

Instead of being frustrated by adversity, our mind focuses on the adventure of creativity with our thoughts. What a glorious paradise?

This is what healing demands. Behavior that is hurtful, shameful, abusive, or demeaning must be brought into the fierce light of truth, and truth can be brutal.

We are in the energy dictatorship that calls itself the United States of America.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

The result was magnificent . . . I became the father of two girls and two boys, lovely children by good fortune they all look like my wife.

Because Lincoln is so closely identified with what it is to be American, everyone wants to claim him, to rewrite his story to satisfy their own particular needs.

Making movies that are really cheap and that can be owned and that you maintain your control of is really exciting.

The job of an actor is disclosure, not pretence!

People with dirty jobs are happier than you think. As a group, they're the happiest people I know.

There is suffering in the light; in excess it burns. Flame is hostile to the wing. To burn and yet to fly, this is the miracle of genius.