I prefer writing originals.

You have to know human behaviour … And the quality of your writing is absolutely capped at your understanding of human behaviour. You’ll never write above what you know about people.

I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence?

But what I didn't recognize when I was much younger was this sort of...when you're on, when you're really on, go at it.

No one can help you write. No one can teach you how to write.

You just try to find something that interests you, and particular something that interests you that's gonna consume you the way that these big movies just really eat you up.

What you need to know to direct a movie is [of] such great variety. I've worked with people who were maestros, who know everything. I've worked with people who were empty and lost, who had no clue what they were doing. You wouldn't hire them to paint your apartment. And then there's everything in-between. There's no list of skills you have to have to sit in that chair.