It's far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
I didn't want to be seen as just a guy on a list. I'm interested in good scripts, scripts that are about something, scripts that move your acting along.
If your budget is in good shape and you are not indebted too much, you can do what the U.S. did at the beginning of the '30s - building railways, etc., but when you don't have that, you must be far more cautious.
A good song should give you a lot of images; you should be able to make your own little movie in your head to a good song.
Even when things are at their worst, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'Good story!'
There's no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time.
All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.
I was a huge fan of the bandleader Ray Noble when I was younger. He was one of the biggest musical names of his day and wrote such romantic songs as 'Goodnight Sweetheart' and 'The Touch Of Your Lips.' Wonderful stuff.
Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.
You have to be able to unleash your inner goofball with me.
Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.
'The Scarlet Gospels' does, by general consensus, seem to mark a new high - or low, depending on your point of view - in its excessiveness, in its extremities.
In the Gospels, we are reminded, 'The very hairs of your head are all numbered.' And your numbered hairs, like your numbered days, recede daily.
You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that's left for you or to make one of your own.
A president's power is limited. We need to vote down the ballot as well, from your councilman all the way up to your governors and congressman.
You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.
Of John Le Carre's books, I've only read 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold,' and I haven't read anything by Graham Greene, but I've heard a great deal about how 'Your Republic Is Calling You' reminded English readers of those two writers. I don't really have any particular interest in Cold War spy novels.
Your failure to enjoy a highly rated novel doesn't mean you're dim - you may find that Graham Greene is more to your taste, or Stephen Hawking or Iris Murdoch or Ian Rankin. Dickens, Stephen King, whoever.
It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
Like most kids, I grew up singing 'This Land Is Your Land' in grammar school, but with the most radical verses neatly removed. This was before I knew it was a Woody Guthrie song.
