You're dumber than you think I think you are.

Good dialogue illuminates what people are not saying

In dramatic writing, the very essence is character change. The character at the end is not the same as he was at the beginning. He's changed-psychologically, maybe even physically.

The straight roads are the roads of progress, the crooked roads are thee roads of genius.

Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water.

I'm not in business to be loved, but I am in business.

Finally, Colin Farrell showed up on my doorstep, only he wasn't Colin Farrell - he was just this Irish kid who had read the script and wanted to do it.

Larry Grobel senses there are no answers in life, only questions. Good ones.

And I think one way or another it's evident to those who work with me that as a writer, a director, a friend, as somebody's there that's very anxious to get the movie made.

But time has caught up with it and I think vindicated it. Shampoo, too: very dark, very ambitious movie.

I'm not supposed to be the one that's caught with his pants down.

Well, it doesn't look good. Makes me look like one of those unloved latchkey children they make after-school specials about.""Don't sell yourself short. You're more Masterpiece Theatre.

There are exactly as many special occasions in life as we choose to celebrate.

I'm a hopeful romantic. In a couple of drinks, I'll be a lucky romantic. That's why they call me Mr. Lucky.

We South Asians have sycophancy in our genes!

You are lucky if you have one or two epiphanies in your life, particularly a creative one.

A philosophy can only be a route to knowledge. It cannot be knowledge crammed down one's throat. If one has a route, he can then find what is true for him. And that is Scientology.

Hope isn't an abstract theory about where human aspirations end and the impossible begins; it's a never-ending experiment, continually expanding the boundaries of the possible.

Every time I deny myself I commit a kind of suicide.

Sometimes music helps. If I feel that it's bogus, I'll literally just call myself out on camera and say that it's dishonest. You do whatever it takes.

Great coders are today’s rock stars.