I think, when I started to become successful in the movie business, my mother was very, very worried. She thought no one would want to marry me and she thought that was the most important thing. And she thought that it would affect my personal relations. And she said how worried she was that people would take advantage of me or I would meet the wrong people. When I was made head of the studio, one of her first things was, "Well, now no one will marry you. I hope you'll be happy, whatever."

The single most important thing you can do in business is to be yourself.

Success has many ways of coming to you. Sometimes it comes right away, and then the film's instantly forgotten. Sometimes you can't remember what won the Academy Award for best picture, and then you can remember the one that didn't. And then sometimes in the afterlife, films that were not successful at all become these giant successes.

I felt, if I never did anything in my life but read scripts and synopsize them, I would be happy.

Acting is one of the professions I most respect because if you tried something and you can't do it and you thought at one time in your life - and of course, I did at one time of my life want it - and you realize that you can't do it that you can't just switch your personality that way, then you are in awe of people who can.

My mother, because of her life, had almost a contradictory way of viewing life. She had this great zest and joy for life and I think that I have that. The glass is always half full for me.

Two things were falling apart, my personal life, my professional life. And I realized that all those things were supposed to make me happy, but nothing could fill me up except myself. So I went into analysis. I went to see a doctor, to talk about my lack of self-esteem. I don't know how to say it better: my lack of self-esteem, my insecurity, and how these things were not going to fill me up. And I'd better fix myself and then find out what I liked. For me, therapy was the greatest gift I could ever give myself. There's nothing I could have done for myself that would've been better.