I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word.

Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.

What I value most in my friends is loyalty.

I pray you indulge me for a space, for I am going to set out on a speech which may have some duration, but whose theme may be gleaned from its opening phrase: how dare you.

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

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

Society functions in a way much more interesting than the multiple-choice pattern we have been rewarded for succeeding at in school. Success in life comes not from the ability to choose between the four presented answers, but from the rather more difficult and painfully acquired ability to formulate the questions.