They do the same thing [with cigarette] that they do in the kind of action picture where you know 200 people are killed and then there's no pain.

Don't smoke. Don't kill yourselves. Don't maim yourselves. Tell your friends. Please don't smoke.

Certainly on a political and a legislative level, Bill Clinton was effective, but the example that he ultimately left, I think for posterity, tragically, is going to begin with that single paragraph lead with the White House intern.

I worry that we are approaching a time when that which is shocking is squeezed out by the Stalinism of political correctness.

I was six when we came to this country. When I was 14 or so, I still had a lot of trouble with it.

And the inner dynamics of Hollywood are like politics. Say you give a script to a group of executives - they all sit around, afraid to voice an opinion, saying nothing, waiting to know what the consensus is. Just like focus groups, opinion polls or a cabinet.

I always try to do true endings and that's where I got into trouble always because Hollywood wants to do happy endings.