“The worst part of governing, the political side, is the grossest part, so that’s what they call it. So anything that reeks of that immediately gets tuned out by 70 percent of the population.”

The one thing for sure is, I don’t ever want to waste a movie. I don’t ever want to waste effort.

I don’t think there’s ever been a moment in history where that, as an artistic message, has played very well, because people in their hearts know that’s terrible and a lie.

Everyone is sort of in their own little area counting lines and no one talks when film’s not rolling. There’s constantly actors coming to me back behind the monitor screaming at me, “Why did my line count drop?” It’s a nasty tense environment.

Animals talking are very rarely funny. But animals behaving as animals – always funny.

Hollywood has to appeal to the broadest audience, and when it comes to most social and economic issues, America is progressive. Because of that, the messages that are in Hollywood movies tend to be, for instance, pro-environment.

Blazing Saddles’ is one of the funniest movies ever made.

I gotta say – if I clicked on a movie interview, and the first part was all about Walt Whitman, I’d love that article.

In general, the final filter of Hollywood is for-profit. Nothing goes through unless it can make money.

Dave Herman as Michael Bolton is one of my favorite performances ever.

So you’re doing that the first two or three screenings, and then finally, you dial the movie in and it’s working, and at that point, it’s 50/50 as far as what’s funny and what’s working.

“Firewall” seems both scary and protective at the same time. And how often does that happen within one word besides “military” and “government?”

My mom then got Pell Grants, put herself through college to get a degree to get a better job. Because we were broke, I then had to go to a state school.

I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it’s there and to push it just a little bit faster.

This was the definition in Webster’s up until 1987 when a corporation bought Webster’s and changed it to exclude any mention of corporations.

Hardly socialism. In fact, it was a Republican plan to begin with.

We’re always looking for the backbone, the central idea, and once you have that you know everything can circle around it.

I never regret anything.

The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.

A meditative mind is at ease because it’s not trying to acquire anything.

We never had reports of Mullah Omar living luxuriously or making money in large quantities or anything like that.

Tell me, if you thought a man had a tendresse for you, but he wasn’t doing anything about it.

If you were able to give up control absolutely, totally, and completely, then you would be a spiritually free being.

The light of consciousness has no mind to change or alter anything. When you start to see the light that you really are, the light waking up in you, the radiance, you realize it has no intention to change you.

The light of consciousness has no mind to change or alter anything. There is no sense that anything needs to change, but it does change.