All these teachers and [screenwriting] books mean you see movies that have been worked over by more committees wielding more rules, that all originality and authorship is lost. That's why you're seeing superstars like Brad Pitt in THE FIGHT CLUB and Tom Cruise in MAGNOLIA. They're desperately searching for people writing and directing off-formula movies.

Ultimately, it's an illusion that you can understand yourself.

Don't ever let the viewer settle in and get ahead of you.

Now I see it clearly. My whole life has pointed in one direction. I see that now. There never has been any choice for me.

Nobody has shot a strip club in black and white in a long time.

The clock is impotent; mechanical time does not affect those living in an eternal present.

You know, when you're in your twenties you use a great deal of symbolism. You somehow think that a character standing beneath a cross is more interesting than a character standing underneath a billboard, but when you get a little older you realize that there's not much difference.