You just have to know what you want and what you're doing and it leads to a kind of general well-being, which I think you sensed when you were there.

I don't think the latest Star Wars pictures have any artistic intentions, but the original picture opened up epic science fiction.

I learned from Ridley [Scott] how to come out of the trailer at a fast walk and make your decisions and keep it going. We were very much on time and under budget, as they say. That was a very important thing for me and very satisfactory.

You don't write for actors. Actors come for characters you've made up.

If you see, as I do, in edited film, you're going to end up as a director.

I came into screenwriting from an odd direction, because the first screenplay that I read was and is better as writing than the top one percent of literary novels.

I never work until I have a deadline. You have to fit so much in a given day that you just don't get serious until you know when the deadline is.