I always believe you can't kill good movies, because somebody's in some room and will die unless it gets made.

I spent two years telling studio heads that it wasn't a cancer picture. I hate cancer pictures. I don't want to see a cancer picture. There is only one thing worth saying about cancer, and that is that there are human beings in cancer wards.

Once you read the script, it's the only way it can be.

[Screenwriting] is no more complicated than old French torture chambers, I think. It's about as simple as that.

I always believe you can't kill good movies, because somebody's in some room and will die unless it gets made.

Kids in general make things fresh and alive and they have this great appreciation for, Holy mackerel, we're making a movie!

You have more and more people coming into the tent with the creative guys [on Hollywood films]. You have marketing and concept testers, advertising people. What you find gets the high numbers is easily appealing subjects: a baby, a big broad joke, a high concept. Everything is tested. The effect is to lessen the gamble, but in fact you destroy a writer's confidence and creativity once so many people are invited into the tent.