Breakthroughs, in art, in culture, in personality, come when tackling the unexpected.

[On filmmaking:] Cardinal rule: It's a youth business.

It is just as important to move on in the wake of stunning success as in the wake of disaster.

No single movie or event makes or breaks your career. Everything can be undone, including success.

Directing is the last frontier for women in the movie business. We are studio heads, we are producers and we are writers, but we are not directors in any numbers.

To whom one reports is a unit of measure. It measures the exact distance between the player and the center of power. It is the closest we can get to a calibrated answer to the question 'How big am I?' More than the size of an executive's office or even his title, which no one remembers anyway, the fewer people between the player and a 'yes,' the more powerful he is.

The first thing you notice about women in Hollywood, besides their low percentage of body fat, is how few are married. And the number of great-looking, successful single women without a social life is staggering. ... The most glaring misconception about Hollywood is that it is the romance capital of the world.