The first amendment ensures not that speech will be fair, but that it will be free. It cannot be both.

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.

My dad was an immigrant kid and a Democrat and a Jew, and we didn't know any Republicans in our group. So I grew up Democratic. My dad was a labor lawyer - a very hardworking guy, a one-horse labor lawyer - and then I went to hippie college and lived in the bubble.

Before you can steal fire from the Gods you gotta be able to get coffee for the director.

The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to devour someone who has experienced the tragic. In our society this person is much more important than anything he might create.

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

The dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.