There's a natural law of karma that vindictive people, who go out of their way to hurt others, will end up broke and alone.

You're a disease. And I'm the cure.

I started out as an actor, but I forced myself to be a writer, even though I wasn't very good at it and had never written. I don't think I ever passed an English course in my life. My first eight to 10 scripts were pretty horrendous, but I stayed at it, stayed at it, and stayed at it, until I eventually found a voice and a subject like Rocky that people were interested in.

Don't be gullible, use life before it uses you. Understand there are no free lunches, and for every action you take, there's a reaction.

Clichés are what good writing is all about. Because our lives are basically clichés.

Nothing's harder than writing. There's no comparison. With directing, you can bounce a lot of ideas around. There's tremendous support - you've got editors and sound mixers. With writing, it's all you, and it's just crippling when people tear up your pages.

A lot of guys have muscles. A lot of strong men in this world. I think it's important to show that even under all this strength there's a fragile side, a side that can be affected.