“If there is something magic about the collaborations I have with actors it’s because I put the character first.”

I want to risk hitting my head on the ceiling of my talent. I want to really test it out and say: O.K., you’re not that good. You just reached the level here. I don’t ever want to fail, but I want to risk failure every time out of the gate.

I’m basically like, you know, learned pretty quickly the guy who throws the first punch usually wins, so when people gave me a hard time I just punched them.

One can be inclined to just say, “F this political correctness! I don’t have time for that!”

All my movies are achingly personal.

I am not going to tell you how I believe, but I do believe in God.

There are a lot of bad screenplays so if you write a good screenplay people are going to respond to it.

I’m very happy with the way I write. I think I do it good. But I’ve never really considered myself a writer.

You name any horrific thing, and I can make a joke out of it.

That’s how it always is with me: the thing that sets me down to start writing is usually not what I end up doing. Because, as much as I love genre, and I try to deliver the goods, I go off from it. I go do my own thing.

Emotion will always win over coolness and cleverness. It’s when a scene works emotionally and it’s cool and clever, then it’s great. That’s what you want.

Dogs got personality. Personality goes a long way.

If I’ve made it a little easier for artists to work in violence, great! I’ve accomplished something.

When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.

Just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character.

You can’t write poetry on the computer.

The good ideas will survive.

When you choose to be an actor, you are going against the odds.

I’m much more proud of being a father than being an actor.

Nuclear apocalypse-who do you need? Actors are probably not top of the list. What can I do for you? I can pretend to be somebody who can grow you some nice crops.

If you got a good imagination, a lot of confidence and you kind of know what you are saying, then you might be able to do it. I know a lot of colorful characters at home that would make great actors.

You have to be the best of whatever you are, but successful, cool actresses come in all shapes and sizes.

If you had asked me back in grade school what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said my first choice was an actor, but if I couldn’t be that, I’d want to be a superhero.

Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor’s mouth lately?

Nicolas Cage is a great actor and he’s done some good action movies too.