“You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.”

Being in Washington is more fictional than being in Hollywood.

You need peers; you need people who are at the same level you are. You never know in life when you’re going to need help, and you never know who you’re going to need it from.

All democracies turn into dictatorships – but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it’s Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea.

If America is the pursuit of happiness, the best way to pursue happiness is to help other people.

Success is when you try to achieve your inward vision externally and have it come off the way you see it. Then YOU feel successful about it; that’s how success is measured.

Train yourself to let go of the things you fear to lose.

I’ve discovered that most critics themselves are cinematically illiterate. They don’t really know much about movies. They don’t know the history. They don’t know the technology. They don’t know anything. So for them to try to analyze it, they’re lost.

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

It’s not a matter of how well can you make a movie. It’s how well can you make it under the circumstance, because there’s always circumstances. You cannot use that as an excuse.

Someday you’re going to have to learn to separate what seems to be important from what really is important.

The one way the world hasn’t changed: teaching is still the most important job.

But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences – is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.

Education is the single most important job of the human race.

The older you get, the less seriously you take criticism. I’ve gotten to a point now where I ignore it completely. It’s just not relevant to me anymore.

From kindergarten to college, certain teachers engaged my curiosity and motivated me to learn. While I was not the best student, their efforts left a lasting impact.

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.

What does politically correct mean? If you’re fat, don’t ask me if you’re fat, because I’m gonna tell you the truth. You’re fat.

Messi does not need his right foot, though. He only uses the left and he’s still the best in the world! Imagine if he also used his right foot. Then we would have serious problems!

Sometimes when the song is right for that time period, it’s just kinda bad to let it wait, and then when you do release it eight months down the road, it’s not the same.

What the head thinks, should be examined critically in the heart and this right decision should be carried out by the hands. This should be the primary product of the educational process.

Travelling so much, sometimes my luggage goes astray. But I can get the right stuff sent to me overnight by a special shipper. No big deal.

Simplicity lies right in front of you. You can make it as complex as you like.

Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.

Society already possesses the psychological techniques needed to obtain universal observance of a code – a code which would guarantee the success of a community or state. The difficulty is that these techniques are in the hands of the wrong people-or, rather, there aren’t any right people.