Power is knowing your past.

Our greatness, our talent has never been the question. It's been a matter of grappling for control over what we do.

It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.

It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.

All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love.

I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night.

I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan.

I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.

When you love something it's not a job anymore.

I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.

Only criminals and adulterers should have to hide who they are.

Decisions are made by those who show up. Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world.

If you feel that strongly about something, you have an obligation to try and change my mind.

I'm terribly afraid of failure. When your identity is wrapped up in writing and you've written something that doesn't work, it's a tough pill to swallow.

To use a basketball metaphor, West Wing cast was a group that liked to pass as much as they liked to shoot.

Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.

The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one - America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.

It seems to me that more and more we've come to expect less and less from each other, and I think that should change.

There are no Asian movie stars