“A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.”

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘no, I went to films.’

I don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of. Failure brings great rewards – in the life of an artist.

To be a novelist, all I need is a pen and a piece of paper.

Violence in real life is terrible; violence in movies can be cool. It’s just another colour to work with.

Movies are my religion and God is my patron. I’m lucky enough to be in the position where I don’t make movies to pay for my pool. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.

Don’t write what you think people want to read. Find your voice and write about what’s in your heart.

I write movies about mavericks, about people who break rules, and I don’t like movies about people who are pulverised for being mavericks.

Violence is fun, man.

I want to top expectations. I want to blow you away.

I loved history because to me, history was like watching a movie.

The easiest way to kill a cult is to make that cult accessible.

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.

If you want to make a movie, make it. Don’t wait for a grant, don’t wait for the perfect circumstances, just make it.

I’ve always thought my soundtracks do pretty good, because they’re basically professional equivalents of a mix tape I’d make for you at home.

Pigs are filthy animals. I don’t eat filthy animals.

A movie doesn’t have to do everything. A movie just has to do a couple of things. If it does those things well and gives you a cool night at the movies, an emotion, that’s good enough.

Love is a sudden revelation: a kiss is always a discovery.

Almost all our desires, when examined, contain something too shameful to reveal.

I love you, with a love so great that it simply couldn’t keep growing inside my heart, but had to leap out and reveal itself in all its magnitude.

Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words will disclose a fool.

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.

It is only our deeds that reveal who we are.

Success doesn’t change you. It reveals you

A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.