It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back.

Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.

A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.

Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others.

First, I started with music singing, writing songs, playing music. Later, I got into acting. I'm not a brilliant musician or a brilliant actor. But, to me, they're still great vehicles for expression.

Some of us are interested in directors, but really the vast majority of us are interested in actors. You experience the films through the actors, so they're all locked into your imagination in some kind of layer of fantasy or hatred or wherever they settle into your imagination.

I love film - it's like painting.

My proudest moment was probably when my oldest boy finished law school and went on to become an FBI agent. It was just beyond my imagination that - with my background - my own son would become an FBI agent.