"What makes the United Nations an appropriate source of legitimacy for intervention is that it is the only place where the claims of the strong are put through the test of justification in front of the weak."

"Communism may be over as an economic system, but as a model of state domination, it is very much alive in the People's Republic of China and in Putin's police state."

"Desert Storm created the pattern for the American way of war that eventually prevailed in Kosovo. America learned from Vietnam that unilateral use of force eventually forfeits international legitimacy and domestic support. Desert Storm demonstrated the political necessity of coalition warfare."

"There's intense national feeling in America that could be called patriotism."

"Any film, or to me any creative endeavour, no matter who you're working with, is, in many cases, a wonderful experience."

"My greatest fear is feeling like a professional novelist. Somebody who creates characters, who sits down and has pieces of paper taped to the wall - what's going to happen in this scene, or this act. What I like is for it to be a much more scary, sloppy reflection of who I am."

"The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction."

"I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look."