I was raised as a Calvinist, which is doctrine-driven. And though there are many things wrong with Calvinism, you are at least encouraged to argue about things.
I find it extraordinary that anyone would have an intellectual conversion to Roman Catholicism.
Musicals are written and then rewritten. Those things used to happen on the road. Now they are done in New York during preview performances.
I loved Sherlock Holmes as a kid, but I remember being disappointed when he'd come up with these simple explanations for these complex mysteries.
The basic philosophy of stoicism is that you have nothing real external to your own consciousness, that the only thing real is in fact your consciousness.
All my stories are like the Greek and Roman myths, and the Egyptian myths, and the Old and New Testament.
The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine.
And out of a desire essentially to imitate what I was reading, I began to write, like a clever monkey.
Sometimes I feel like I am on top of the world. Other times it feels like the world is on top of me.
To recognize yourself in a character onscreen, and to connect with them, you gotta recognize their flaws; they gotta feel like a real person.
I can't think of anyone I admire who isn't fuelled by self-doubt. It's an essential ingredient. It's the grit in the oyster.
I think the collision between the First and Third world is going to become more and more conspicuous. It's the big cliff that we've all got to climb.
Governments have always been wary of the arts because they're wayward and ambiguous and because they deal with feelings rather than facts.
Our goal isn't to close Wal-Mart down. It is to make it a better, more humane company toward its employees and the communities it is in.
It proved to be pretty impossible to get funds for a feature film in Finland. It's still small, but the film industry was miniscule at that point in the early '80s.
Actually, it was first a movie called Gale Force, which was a hurricane movie. That script never came together, and then the same deal was replaced with Cliffhanger.
Well, once I did 'Grease,' everyone was offering me studio pictures in a similar vein - you know, popcorn movie.
You know, I think Chris Nolan is an incredibly intelligent filmmaker, and I think Leonardo DiCaprio is an incredibly talented actor.
I did The Newton Boys and during the whole process of making the film, I may have spent a week in Los Angeles.
You can do irrefutably impossible things with the right amount of planning and support from intelligent and hardworking people and pizza.
The Romans used every housing form known today and they have a remarkably modern look.
