It often strikes me that the actors in high school movies look too old.

Most of us do not consciously look at movies.

We must try to contribute joy to the world... I didn't always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

It is quite possible for the vulgar to be funny, but to succeed, it must rise to a certain genius.

We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We're kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.

While I am usually in despair when a movie abandons its plot for a third act given over entirely to action, I have no problem with the way Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ends, because it has been pointing toward this ending, hinting about it, preparing us for it, all the way through. What a glorious movie.

I begin to feel like I was in the last generation of Americans who took a civics class.