Life’s missed opportunities, at the end, may seem more poignant to us than those we embraced – because in our imagination they have a perfection that reality can never rival.
What every human being should do is eat a vegetarian diet based on whole foods. Period. That’s it. Animal protein is bad for you. Dairy is bad for you. Forget the ads: Milk and eggs are bad for you.
To say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement; greeting cards have expressed more passion.
Film has become a marketed commodity, and the opportunities and audiences for art cinema have grown smaller. There is a general downturn in cultural literacy, perhaps because of television.
The Muse visits during the process of creation, not before.
Life is made up of challenges that cannot be solved but only accepted.
Improvisation is a weird word because we often think it means that you make things up out of whole cloth right there on the spot, and that’s rarely the case in acting. You have to know who the character is, what the situation is and what is needed.
One, don’t wait for inspiration, just start the damned thing. Two, once you begin, keep on until the end. How do you know how the story should begin until you find out where it’s going?
Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?
I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state.
To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.
I know as a critic I’m required to have a well-armored heart. I must be a cynical wise guy to show my great sophistication. No pushover, me.
I am, beneath everything else, a fan. I was fixed in this mode as a young boy and am awed by people who take the risks of performance.
A truly strong woman will choose a stong man who disagrees with her over a weak one who goes along.
I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip.
There are no guarantees. But there is also nothing to fear. We come from oblivion when we are born. We return to oblivion when we die. The astonishing thing is this period of in-between.
My favorite love scenes in movies don’t involve passion, they involve nobility or sacrifice.
I was born inside the movie of my life. The visuals were before me, the audio surrounded me, the plot unfolded inevitably but not necessarily. I don’t remember how I got into the movie, but it continues to entertain me.
Because we are human, because we are bound by gravity and the limitations of our bodies, because we live in a world where the news is often bad and the prospects disturbing, there is a need for another world somewhere, a world where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers live.
We must try to contribute joy to the world.