The thing about comedy is it gives you a platform to expose your own shortcomings, so it becomes a public display of weirdness.
I don't have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It's always the people who make things happen.
When you learn something from people, or from a culture, you accept it as a gift, and it is your lifelong commitment to preserve it and build on it.
When your child is sick, you have tunnel vision.
Some of us are interested in directors, but really the vast majority of us are interested in actors. You experience the films through the actors, so they're all locked into your imagination in some kind of layer of fantasy or hatred or wherever they settle into your imagination.
We are looking for a set of personal characteristics that predict success, the first and foremost of which is perseverance in the face of challenges. We also look for the ability to influence and motivate others who share your values, strong problem-solving ability, and leadership.
We were supposed to stay over in Boston, but when Scribners heard I'd won the Pulitzer, they told me to get on a plane - that Katie Couric wanted my body. And when Katie Couric wants your body, you get moving right away.
Just in general, no matter what you're doing, be true to yourself. Never let anyone else dictate how you live your life.
Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.
The thing with 'Mortal Kombat' is we really deal with that: What is the right thing to do? When somebody does something bad, do you, then, in your mind, rectify the situation by doing something bad to them?
It is always great when people take interest in your work.
I used to make snap judgments, moved quickly. It's more important to be thoughtful, think of the consequences of your decisions.
Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, 'Too much of a good thing can be wonderful'.
Old age is when the liver spots show through your gloves.
For me, the most interesting people are ones who often work against their best interests. Bad choices. They go in directions where you go, 'No no no nooo!' You push away someone who is trying to love you, you hurt someone who's trying to get your trust, or you love someone you shouldn't.
Whatever the device you use for getting your information out, it should be the same information.
Life is a process of working out what's not working for you and disentangling yourself from it and trying then not walk into the same thing again. Watching your patterns and correcting them if you can.
No one ever said movies are for developing your range. Hardly anyone gets that opportunity. Which is why I think the stage is so good. It's less bread, but you can play different types, and you can initiate your own projects.
At the end of your life, it's friendships, emotions and thoughts that you take with you, rather than what's in your bank account. So, even though people don't have a lot here, they are a lot richer in many ways and we can learn from that.
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
Mr. Faulkner, of course, is interested in making your mind rather than your flesh creep.
Be able to defend your arguments in a rational way. Otherwise, all you have is an opinion.
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
Regrets and recriminations only hurt your soul.
A lot of different factors go into making your performance a good one.
Having wires strewn across your couch and across the floor is a big deal to a lot of people.
If you're concentrating so damn hard on a piece of mathematics or a musical - a piece of music or a piece of art, the restraint that holds the rest of - the rest of the world back off and vanishes in the rest of your life.
If you don't think drugs have done good things for us, then take all of your records, tapes and CD's and burn them.
I equate ego with trying to figure everything out instead of going with the flow. That closes your heart and your mind to the person or situation that's right in front of you, and you miss so much.
We have to be able to criticise what we love, to say what we have to say 'cause if your not trying to make something better, than as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.
But I think our humour is exactly the same today. Only, we've made rules now. We've said we are not going to do prosthetic make-up scenes, because when they take it off half your face comes off.
While I was writing 'Stick Out Your Tongue' in Beijing, the police began knocking on my door again. As soon as I finished the book, I moved to Hong Kong so that I could work undisturbed on my next novel.
I mean, to win a major, you've got to be a good player and you've got to get your breaks, as well, to win.
Some people work hard in this business and become really popular, really big stars but they never receive an award from within the business. Somehow, when your colleagues and friends believe in you to the point of handing you an award it means so much more.
When you're going into an employment environment that looks pretty scary, it is easy to lose your moral compass, your decency, your sense of civility and your sense of community.
California must be all American or all Chinese. We are resolved that it shall be American, and are prepared to make it so. May we not rely upon your sympathy and assistance?
