The secret of the creative life is to feel at ease with your own embarrassment.

The secret of the creative life is how to feel at ease with your own embarrassment. We're all in the dirty laundry business and we're being paid to take risks and look silly. Race car drivers get paid to risk their lives in a more concrete way; we get paid to risk our lives in an emotional way.

All the animals come out at night.

There's no escape. I'm God's only man.

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.

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

Screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.