I've wanted to direct for a long time, but it had to be a story I wanted to tell. The writer's job is to find the story that he should tell.

The better the script, the less money there is. That's just the economics of the studio system.

I want to write stories that don't help you escape life, but embrace life.

I've always written for actors, and if you want to write for good actors, you have to write parts that are surprising, that are human, and that allow them to go to a wide range of places.

I don't want to write my life. I live my life. I want to make up a new world.

I can't stop terrorism; I can't cure cancer. But I can put some stories out there in their own quiet way that talk about tolerance.

The bigger the budget, the less an audience is trusted, and that's the difference between a big-budget film and a small-budget film.