Producers should have the courage of their convictions. See your project through to its fruition. Seek help and be generous enough to take on collaborators and not be territorial as you're learning.

As a producer, it's your job to bang on the table and convince studio heads why great movies should be made.

Winning an Oscar attracts the attention of directors and other actors and creates a boost in salary, particularly for someone like Halle Berry. For an established star like Denzel Washington, the benefits are less tangible.

The film world is always looking for great source material, and Broadway has traditionally and historically been a place to go.

Washington knows how to spend money.

I did a Broadway show with Alan Alda and how much money can Alan Alda have.

All too often, government's response to social breakdown has been a classic case of 'patching' - a case of handing money out, containing problems and limiting the damage but, in doing so, supporting - even reinforcing - dysfunctional behaviour.

Everyday people are graduating from universities with crippling debt, stifling their opportunity for financial mobility, that is what's broken with this country.