“When I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was to escape what I thought was the country and get to a city. Probably film and television had influenced me so much, I really thought the key to happiness was living a very artificial life in a penthouse in New York with martini glasses.”

I am really a loner after all; I am really not a social person. Because of my job, people think I am out every night, but I really hate all that. I am somebody who likes to be alone and see some close friends. I am a shy and introspective person.

Only hire people you want to have dinner with.

British people still wear clothes. By clothes I mean actual clothes: jackets and shirts and ties and suits. English men make an effort. We’ve lost that in the US. Everyone is more concerned with being comfortable.

A film should be somewhat personal. I think that whatever you create you have to be true to yourself and create something that feels right to you.

I understand that I have a certain look that can be used to my advantage. I know the power of that when I walk into a room and talk to people, and I can use it as an advertising tool. Now I am actually selling me, my face, my thoughts. So I am my guy.

If I’m sending emails, and I get all wound up and stressed and don’t know what to do with myself for 20 minutes, I just go soak in hot water and lie there, thinking, ‘What should I do?’ So it’s meditative.

I am one of those people who isn’t great at anything, but I’m pretty good at most things.

It’s really never fair to judge people because none of us know what’s going on inside anyone else’s head.

I believe that when you really want to do something, you should go ahead and do it. I mean, I feel fear, but I never let that stop me.

The seventies is what I love. Soft, touchable beauty is what I love.

It’s hard not to be sexy in a pair of high heels.

What is important is that we stop and realize, “Okay. This is fine. I can enjoy that. But what is really important, what I’m really going to take away with me from this life, is my connection with other people.

I know one day I’ll be irrelevant. No matter how hard you try there is a cultural moment, but eventually that window’s gone, your time on Earth is finished, and you might as well leave. I could absolutely die tomorrow – I would not care. I feel like I’ve lived, I feel like I’ve had a great life.

Want girls to let you put your fingers in certain places? Get a manicure.

When the youth of America gets together, amazing things happen.

On the one hand, I want to go off and live in the desert with my dog and sculpt things out of adobe.

Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.

Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as a secret to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

I treat my heart like a sick child and gratify its every fancy.

Adults follow paths. Children explore.

Don’t talk to me or my son again.

Every generation, civilization is invaded by barbarians – we call them children.

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.