In this business, the minute you start feeling comfortable about the show you're doing or the ratings you're getting, you're in big trouble.
And you realise you're doing a public service in making people happy - as a musician you can give people something a doctor, a lawyer, a politician cannot give them that. It's not scientific. It's spiritual - a good feeling. And although you don't know them personally, the audience are like your friends.
I think you want to try every sport possible just to experience life.
If you want to remain the best, you have to keep on doing what you are good at.
It's okay to have personal ambitions, but you have to take someone with you.
You don't want to influence the same system you are trying to forecast.
No matter how tough the meat may be, it's going to be tender if you slice it thin enough.
I'm interested in trying to explore what I think is the truth at a given time in my life, and part of the process of being honest is - in my mind - talking about the idea that you're watching a movie. You're sitting here watching a movie. And I like that. It appeals to me intellectually, and also in a way I can't even explain.
I'm a great believer in the character of a club. To me, character has a lot to do with how you compete. That creates urgency and toughness. That elevates the talent that you have.
Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.
Be the business never so painful, you may have it done for money.
Without tact you can learn nothing.
My mum is black, my dad is white, and when I was a teenager, people would say, 'So what are you? Are you black? Or white? What are you more of?'
The capacity you're thinking of is imagination; without it there can be no understanding, indeed no fiction.
The only thing that matters to me about my stories is that they're entertaining and they're funny. And I tend to get bored easily, so I generally throw something supernatural in. I would say they're humorous novels that have a supernatural bent, but that's as close as you're going to get to fitting them all in the same basket.
It's amazing how much of a bodily experience being scared is. It doesn't take very long of hyperventilating to feel like you're going to pass out. It's one of those things where being scared is more of a physiological response that you can pretty easily manipulate. So in those types of scenes, it just takes a lot of energy.
The most obvious thing you can't do with a guitar synthesizer is to really sound like a guitar.
You know, I just don't believe that art is supposed to make sense. I really don't think it's supposed to be analyzed to death. It's left to the listener or looker to get what they can get from it.
Hollywood people want to build you up and make you famous only to knock you off you're the pedestal they built for you.
If you want to recapture your youth, just cut off his allowance.
Stanley Kubrick was a big inspiration. People accuse me of never using my own material. But when did Kubrick? You look at his films and they are completely unique... completely separate entities.
You get what you reward. Be clear about what you want to get and systematically reward it.
What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you'll know what frightens me.
Every human being is unique and reacts differently to different food items. A diet that works for you may not necessarily work for your friend.
What I know about this world is that white people will take care of themselves. And what I have learned is that if you are where they are on an equal basis, they cannot take care of themselves without taking care of you.
People always accuse me of making these dark, depressing movies. 'Why do you have to pick up on real issues? People are so exhausted and miserable.'
I think you start to prepare the minute you read something.
When you're making an album, it's, like, exciting every night you make something new, but you're the only one who gets to hear it.
You can't undo a deportation.
Meeting everyone you wanted to know in the small surf industry, I saw how the surf trade was made up of characters that not only surfed, but were able to develop a business out of their relationship with their product and the ocean.
It's hard being black. You ever been black? I was black once - when I was poor.
I think the joy of wanting to direct is having that nervous anxiety knowing your film is about to be shown and you're sitting right there with everyone.
Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments.
You wouldn't want to be called a sell-out by selling a product. Selling out was frowned on, whereas now you can major in it at business school.
If you can change three lives in 10, three lives in a hundred, that's got to be good, hasn't it?
Well, Warren Harding, I have got you the presidency. What are you going to do with it?
