If I'm going to act in someone's movie, I want the movie to be interesting and be able to get a couple of solid doubles.

If you paint, write, do mosaics, knit - if it's solving that part of your brain saying, 'I need to do this,' you've won.

If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.

If you're going to act and do this for a living, you want to play something that the audience didn't expect.

In my screenplays - from the very beginning I've always used tape. I talk my screenplays. And then have somebody transcribe them.

It's better to be known by six people for something you're proud of than by 60 million for something you're not.

It's interesting when you're part of a group - the Jews, to be exact - that the world has had such problems with.

Most entertainment is trying to get you. It's tested, like toothpaste.

Movies are an expensive business.

Twitter is the Devil's playground.

Twitter, to me, works if you're funny. Twitter doesn't work as a promotional tool unless you do it very, very, very occasionally.

You know, I became a director out of necessity. I was writing comedies, and I couldn't find anybody to deliver it correctly.

You know, when cameras are rolling, improvisation doesn't feel natural. The pressure is too great. You're on a time schedule. You've got 60 crewmen.

All improv turns into anger. All comedy improv basically turns into anger, because that's all people know how to do when they're improvising. If you notice shows that are improvising are generally people yelling at each other.

As an actor, if you're just sitting and staring and you don't know who you are in your own mind, it's vacant. And sometimes the camera is an X-ray machine, it can pick it up.

Bullfights are hugely popular because you can sit comfortably with a hot dog and possibly watch a man die. It won't be me, but I can sit comfortably and watch it.

By the way, movies are like sporting events in that you're as good as the movie you're in. You can sit in a room for 20 years and go do a movie and you can just kill in it and you move to the head of the line again. By the same token, you can do five movies a year and if they're dreck, it's nothing.

'Drive' came to me because the casting director knew my manager and called and said, 'You've always talked to me about Albert wanting to play the heavy. I think he should read this.' My ears just perked up.

Even if you didn't see the movie, you'd see two words you'd never seen put together before - comedy and Muslim. Comedy is friendly - it's the least offensive word in our language.

I guess 'The Player' was a pretty good L.A. movie. And 'Chinatown.' Was there ever a better L.A. movie about a certain period in L.A.? That was terrific.