To find beauty in the sad, hope in the midst of loss, and dignity in failure is great poetic art.

It is the objective of the protagonist that keeps us in our seats.

I go out there. I'm out there every day. [Pause] There is nothing out there.

I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact.

A good writer gets better only by learning to cut, to remove the ornamental, the descriptive, the narrative, and especially the deeply felt and meaningful. What remains? The story remains.

Film is a collaborative business: bend over.

I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old. When 'American Buffalo' came out on Broadway, people would storm out and say, 'How dare he use that kind of language!' Of course I'm alienating the public! That's what they pay me for.