We Americans have always considered Hollywood, at best, a sinkhole of depraved venality. And, of course, it is. It is not a protective monastery of aesthetic truth. It is a place where everything is incredibly expensive.

The true writer must write not the acceptable but the true.

We all hope. It's what keeps us alive.

Let the cut tell the story. Otherwise you have not got dramatic action, you've got narration.

I've always been fascinated by the picaresque.

When I started out I was a failed actor.

We're all put to the test... but it never comes in the form or at the point we would prefer, does it?