[While shooting close-ups] you study real eyes, you study how the light reflects in them, you study the back of the eye, you study the way irises reflect emotion. You go into great scientific detail.

One does not simply walk into Mordor.

The big-budget blockbuster is becoming one of the most dependable forms of filmmaking.

The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.

Remember, pain is temporary; film is forever.

If you work at love, you will find love at work.

Everybody's life has these moments, where one thing leads to another. Some are big and obvious and some are small and seemingly insignificant.

Filmmaking for me is always aiming for the imaginary movie and never achieving it.

Actors will never be replaced. The thought that somehow a computer version of a character is going to be something people prefer to look at is a ludicrous idea.

Every film is a challenge. I always say that making a movie is like film school - you're always learning. But unlike most schools, you never get done with it. You never learn everything.

I think that's the job of a director really, to sort of funnel all the creativity into one centralized point of being.

When honor dies—when trust is a useless thing—what use is life?

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

A lot of things have been thrown at me in life, and I've got through it all without a rule book, taking it one day at a time.

For years I've been stressing with regard to UFOs that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

He who takes people for smart pays an expensive lesson.

I don't need to be asking for money for local museums and other projects just to make me look good back home.

In winter, you fed the birds; and in summer, do the same thing! In winter, you gave them bread; and in summer, give them water!

You know who helped me a lot? Jane Fonda. She said, Look at how many times I've been up and I've been down. So don't worry about anything.

I never really got into any records purely thinking of them as a breakup record. I mean, honestly, for me, listening to a breakup record whilst dealing with one seems counterproductive!

Dreams are stories made by and for the dreamer.