I never overestimate the audience, nor do I underestimate them. I just have a very rational idea as to who we’re dealing with, and that we’re not making a picture for Harvard Law School, we’re making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.

Ever notice how these European trains always smell of eau de cologne and hard boiled eggs?

If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you.

The forest of Compiegne. Look at it. Like a kind grandmother dozing in her rocking chair. Old trees practicing curtsies in the wind because they still think Louis XIV is king.

If something smells bad, why put your nose in it?

Develop a clean line of action for your leading character

The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.