You never want your second act or the whole movie to just be this relentless march towards its goal. You want things to take the audience by surprise.

Adversity challenges the masks we hide behind, revealing sides of ourselves we have not yet comfortably with the world outside. It is why we dislike adversity, because we have to face what we don't yet understand about ourselves.

The number one metaphor I have in my mind for writing a screenplay is that...you're trying to climb a mountain blindfolded. And the funny thing about that is, you think, 'Okay, that's hard because you're climbing up a rock face, and you don't know where you're going, and you don't know where the top is, you can't see what's below you...' But actually the hardest part about climbing a mountain blindfolded is just finding the mountain.

Changing how you think costs you no money and it takes no special talent. It does take a commitment on your part to be different.

Good writing is deceptive in that it hides its own artifice - it makes it seem easy.

My God, there are so many mediocre screenplays out there.

It drives me crazy when people say, "All we're trying to do is create entertainment." I feel like people go to movies for more than that.