I just don't believe that you can't make anything happen. I think if something's good and you believe in it, and you care about it, and you give it love and nurture it, it's going to happen.

Pauline Kael had seen Nashville, and she loved Nashville. When I called her, she immediately responded to me because we had become friends, and I told her how great this film was, and she told me, "Well, I'll have to see it for myself." So I showed it to her, and she flipped.

Every minute doing one thing is a minute not doing something else. Every choice is another choice not made another path grown over lost.

George Clooney says that I'm "the last of your kind." That's a nice quote. I kind of like that quote. I'm a guy who shakes your hand and will never let you down. I have a code of honor and I don't lie. I have a code of honor about life and that's what he meant. And you don't need a contract with me.

I am persistent about everything I believe in. If there's a film I want to do, a record, a Broadway show - I do it. Everybody can hate it but I will still do it. I am fearless that way.

Talented people have to do what they do. Someone can criticize but you do what you do.

It’s been the structure of my life: you scheme and plan and try and fail and try again and accumulate and lose and win back, and then you tell.