“When I was working a lot, I felt guilty as a parent. I couldn’t pick up my son every day from school, bake him cookies and that kind of thing.”

I’d rather not talk about money. It’s kind of gross.

What does it mean when people applaud? Should I give ’em money? Say thank you? Lift my dress? The lack of applause – that I can respond to.

You have to live life in the moment and get the most out of it.

I wasn’t supported, I wasn’t given any self-esteem.

I find George Bush and Dick Cheney frightening, Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft frightening.

If a man wants to get it right, he’s looked up to and respected. If a woman wants to get it right, she’s difficult or impossible. If he acts, produces and directs, he’s called multitalented. If she does the same thing, she’s called vain and egotistical.

Art finds a way to be constructive. It becomes heat in cold places; it becomes light in dark places.

It’s true that I have a very healthy ego; anybody who creates does.

On a very basic level, many people think celebrities have too much already, so we shouldn’t be entitled to our political opinions.

To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people’s views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it’s also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do – bad or good.

I always wear the same thing at home. I can’t be bothered with jewelry. My pants have elastic waists. I like to be comfortable. There are so many more important things to worry about.

Art is the signature of a generation; artists have a way of defining the times.

I don’t read music. Not even essentially. Not even nonessentially.

Directing is so interesting. You know, it just sort of encompasses everything that you see, that you know, that you’ve felt, that you have observed.

I don’t like talking about myself and I don’t like talking about the work.

I remember when I was 5 living on Pulaski Street in Brooklyn, the hallway of our building had a brass banister and a great sound, a great echo system. I used to sing in the hallway.

I’ve been lucky enough to live through all the things that are supposed to give meaning to our lives, like parenting, grandparenting, art, celebrity.

As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.

When I was 12, I forgot the keys to my parent’s apartment. So I simply climbed up seven floors to get in.

The good parent: someone who doesn’t mind, for a time, being hated by their children.

I believe in the right of every parent to choose whether his child shall be educated in the public school or in a religious school supported by those of his own faith.

I think that whoever is the attorney general, you don’t want them to be as a yes person for any particular constituency.

I also want them to know that being successful is not the real world – that their parents get treated better because they’re on TV.

You gotta have a concrete lawn before I feel comfortable enough to go in and talk to you parents.