You're as good as the best thing you've ever done.

After so many drive-in waitresses becoming movie stars, there has been this real drought, when along come class; somebody who actually went to school, can spell, maybe even plays the piano. She may be a wispy, thin little thing, but when you see that girl, you know you're really in the presence of something. In that league there's only ever been Garbo, and the other Hepburn, and maybe Bergman. It's a rare quality, but boy, do you know when you've found it.

The best director is the one you don't see.

My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?

Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You've got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven's "Pastoral." A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.

Don't be too clever for an audience. Make it obvious. Make the subtleties obvious also.

The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. Every single person out there is an idiot, but collectively they're a genius.