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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I’ve worked with freshmen that were easier than this.

Some people say my humor focuses too much on stereotypes. It doesn't. It focuses on facts.

In reference to Cat Stevens, it is very, very important we have accurate information on our terrorist watch list and our no fly list and that you have a remedy.

I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.

Your love made it all worth waiting for some like you.

I don't have anything to prove to anybody, which is a lovely place to be.

Mediocrity is more dangerous in a critic than in a writer.

Hate is able to provoke disorders, to ruin a social organization, to cast a country into a period of bloody revolutions; but it produces nothing.

Just as a salesperson is never extreme or original or overdressed, so the TV retailers never do anything to distract their audiences from the real product, the commercial.

You don't have to come from Trinidad to really love Harry Belafonte, you don't have to come from the West Coast to appreciate the simplicity and the beauty of the songs Kurt Cobain wrote.