“There’s an old saying in Hollywood: It’s not the length of your film, it’s how you use it.”

I’m very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.

Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.

And I was like, “Yeah, anything. Twenty-four hours times five is 120 hours. Oh, great, I’ll fill 120 hours of my life with something.” So I did that and it was fun, and then I did Flirting with Disaster.

I don’t think know if anything’s going to translate anywhere. You’re making a movie, you hope it’s going to be funny, you can’t think about how it’s going to go over.

Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don’t play their game!

I grew up wanting to make movies, and along the way I suddenly found that I had a career doing comedy.

Maybe forced retirement isn’t necessary after all.

I studied Tom Cruise running in all the Mission Impossibles. I think he’s one of the best screen runners.

The cliches are that it’s the most generic Starsky and Hutch plot you can find.

My own parents were touchy-feely.

People like to define you through what they’ve seen you do. There are aspects of my personality, I guess, that come through on-screen, but I don’t sit around thinking, ‘I’ve been a bumbling suitor all my life.’

As a kid I had dreams about being successful, thinking it would be cool. Then, when I was in my 20s, I really thought I had it much more figured out than I do now.

There’s always an element of fear that you need to work a lot until people get sick and tired of you or finally figure out that you’re a fraud after all!

I’m Jewish, but my mom’s Catholic, so the guilt area is covered. I have the highest expectations, along with the lowest. I tried to put as much of myself as possible in Reality Bites, but in terms of my humor, I’m still trying to figure out what my sensibility is. It’s a process, really.

I’m always willing to endure humiliation on behalf of my characters.

I know that I’m better as an actor when I’m working with a good actor. I think anytime you’re working with a better actor, it makes you a better actor.

I learned to ride a ten-speed when I was 4 or 5. My uncle gave me the bike, hand-me-down, and everyone used to stare at me riding up and down this block. I was too short to reach the pedals, so I put my legs through the V of the frame. I was famous. The little kid who could ride the ten-speed.

They are gifted with the powers of being mothers, but not nursing mothers. Nature gives them bosoms for show, but not for use. So Lady Arabella had a wet-nurse.

No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.

Somebody gets it home and they feel great when they pay the money, but then they get it home and use it and the joy is gone.

The media must be used effectively to reach the masses. You have to find a new language in which to address the people and demonstrate what is possible.

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.

It’s no use trying to be different than you are.

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.