It's a trifle hard to surprise yourself with a story you've written.
It's so clear cut with a comedian - you have that reflex action, whereby you laugh or you don't. And so you either love us or you simply cannot see why people are laughing.
You know something is a hit comedically if you can just call up one of your friends and belt out a line from the show and you both start laughing.
A lot of designers get caught up in the creativity, but you've got to think about the legs of your collection - essentially, how the line is going to move forward.
I can assure you Mr. Zureikat never gave me a penny from an oil deal, a cake deal, a bread deal or from any other deal.
If you were to describe me as teetotal, on behalf of my constituency I'd have to sue; that would lose me every vote in the Highlands.
It's a cruel, heartless world out there in commercial rock 'n' roll, and when you take as much time off as we did, eight years, booking agents don't know if you'll draw.
You could read Kant by yourself, if you wanted; but you must share a joke with some one else.
You have gigantic companies feeding off musicians and artists because the artists need the exposure.
It's not like they just open the gate to Hollywood and off you go - you earn your stripes. I worked ferociously hard even just to get an agent.
I've already felt that I want to direct. Being an executive producer is like the best job in the world because you make all these executive decisions and then you leave the money to other people. You don't have to be on set and counting beans.
If you were to ask me to pick my favourite author, well, there are so many of them, I'd really just have to say the first names that came to mind, and I'm sure that I'll later think 'Oh, I should have mentioned that one.'
Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.
I will never forget experiencing Venice for the first time. It feels like you are transported to another time - the art, music, food and pure romance in the air is like no other place.
When you go onto the internet, if you really rummage around randomly then how do you hope to find something of any of value?
Your creativity before it gets formed into words and songs is the actual substance. No one else can see it, right? Unless you give it the shape of a song or a painting or whatever.
A lot of the people that stop you - well, they're not nuts, exactly. They're more like super-fans. They think that I'm some sort of rich guy, that everyone in the movies is making the kind of money Angelina Jolie is making. They don't realize that most of my life has been a struggle.
The sound is the key; audiences will accept visual discontinuity much more easily than they'll accept jumps in the sound. If the track makes sense, you can do almost anything visually.
The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.
We've shown the world that New York can never be defeated, because of its dynamic and diverse population and because it embodies the spirit of enterprise and the love of liberty. And because no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you.
What I learned as an actor was the only way you could really do August Wilson's work, you had to leave an ounce of your essence on that stage,... Otherwise it was impossible.
Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?
What gets people into trouble with records now is that they want to build something up without substantial musical ideas. Without that as a foundation, you can add all the layers of sound you want - it's still going to sound like a mess.
So I was determined to use my last two years in college doing something I thought I would enjoy, which was acting. And it was probably because there was girls over in the drama school too, you know?
I'm going to tell you the story about the geese which fly 5,000 miles from Canada to France. They fly in V-formation but the second ones don't fly. They're the subs for the first ones. And then the second ones take over - so it's teamwork.
What's an ambush interview? You walk up to a fellow who you want to talk to, and he hasn't been - he hadn't been willing to talk to you before. You've sent him letters, and you've tried to talk to him on the phone. So you walk up to him on the street and ask him a question - that's an ambush?
You cannot make easy decisions unless you first commit yourself to hard solutions.
As the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day; that doesn't mean you should run out and buy one.
There is no change - I'm as deep or as shallow as I ever was. What's new is on-the-job experience. This is what you gain with years.
How can you look at the Texas legislature and still believe in intelligent design?
It's about communication. It's about honesty. It's about treating people in the organization as deserving to know the facts. You don't try to give them half the story. You don't try to hide the story. You treat them as - as true equals, and you communicate and you communicate and communicate.
Contempt is the only asymmetrical facial expression, so it's easy to spot once you're aware of its signs. One researcher has successfully tracked it in couples as a predictor of divorce. When someone is angry at you, you've still got traction with them, but when they display contempt, you've been dismissed.
If you are truly innovating, you don't have a prototype you can refer to.
When you want to make a film abroad, you need producers and people who support you. You need a team that speaks your language.
No matter how many times you do it, you don't get used to the sadness - for me at least - of coming to the end of a film.
You can't complain about the pressures, the paparazzi, the madness. Because that is the job. I've always understood that's the deal.
