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

One of our jobs is to keep women working, which we do by keeping women coming to the movies. And doing that means making good, smart, often funny movies that women can identify with-with terrific dialogue we all remember and cherish, and stories that illuminate our lives and decisions and turning points.

In most fields of endeavor there are no easy jobs; there are only graceful ways of performing difficult ones.

When I was starting out, the first women studio heads and writers were just getting into their perches - development execs learning their chops.

My sense of Los Angeles was very New York provincial, as in 'all those people are crazy out there' (which they are), and stupid (which they're not), and immoral (it's more interesting than that).

Everything can be undone, including success.

What turns a work crisis into a life crisis is the infusion of dread.