Your take on things is what is either going to make you somebody people talk about or no.

I think I'm good at amplifying an actor's strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. And they all have strengths and weaknesses.

When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead.

To me the director’s job is to leave it in better shape than you found it, literally.

If you're sitting around thinking what other people think about your work, you'll just become paralysed.

We [people] are a species that's wired to tell stories. We need stories. It's how we make sense of things. It's how we learn.

I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating...anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us-I think this world would be unlivable without art and I thank you.

You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.

There are three major social issues that this country is struggling with: education, poverty, and drugs. Two of them we talk about, and one of them we don't.

What are the stories you want people to tell about you?

The ought to be a worldwide cultural taskforce that just stops you when you have ideas like combining The Red Desert with an armored car heist movie.

Gratitude goes beyond a delight for a gift

I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.

To attempt to know myself ‘apart’ from God is to choose to know nothing more than ‘a part’ of myself.

Taking care is one way to show your love. Another way is letting people take good care of you when you need it.

A man may do worse than make what the world calls a not wholly happy marriage.

You are already broke and don't even know it.

I think everyone's a geek in some way.

I love going to the river not only to enjoy nature, but to think about the Los Angeles River's place in our city's history and to envision its great place in our future.

Painting and sculpture help other people to see what a wonderful world we live in.

I live in a perpetual present. I don't look back and I don't look forward. I just live from week to week.