I don't ask for much. I don't ask to be rich, and I don't ask to be famous, and I don't ask to play center field for the New York Yankees. I just want to get married and have a wife, and a house, and I want to have a kid, and I want to go see him be a tooth in the school play!

In your mid-30s, it’s time to start playing guys of compromise. And as you get older, men of bitter compromise.

Movie-making is telling a story with the best technology at your disposal.

All that most parents hope is that their children are happy, funny, well adjusted, and have a passion for something in their lives. What would negate everything is if the next generation that we're responsible for has a passionless existence. And that's cause for occasional sleepless nights.

For some people, I will be Forrest Gump for the rest of my life. But that's OK; that's a good thing.

I do not want to admit to the world that I can be a bad person. It is just that I don't want anyone to have false expectations. Moviemaking is a harsh, volatile business, and unless you can be ruthless, too, there's a good chance that you are going to disappear off the scene pretty quickly.

E-mail is far more convenient than the telephone, as far as I'm concerned. I would throw my phone away if I could get away with it.