It all starts with the script: it's not worth taking myself away from my family if I don't have something I'm really passionate about.

Every time I go to a movie, it's magic, no matter what the movie's about.

My early exposure to all the leviathans of the Saturday matinee creature features inspired me, when I grew up, to make 'Jurassic Park.'

I always think if it's a good story, the audience can't wait to run out of the theater and go tweet somebody with the gist of a story, in a nutshell, almost, because it was that interesting.

My movies more often are told through pictures, not words. But in this case, the pictures took second position to the incredible words of Abraham Lincoln and his presence [...] I was less interested in an outpouring of imagery than in letting the most human moment of this story evolve before us.

I simply adore 'The Simpsons.' I go to bed in a 'Simpsons' T-shirt.

History opens up new worlds to film-makers all the time.