"The strangest part about being famous is you don't get to give first impressions anymore. Everyone already has an impression of you before you meet them."

"I mean, I love L.A. - I love living here. But I wish that we could make things without the need to hit a home run every single time. It's a unique thing to Hollywood that if you don't do that every time, then you're considered a failure. But it's like, 'Well, are you making movies to be successful? Or are you making movies to learn something?'"

"I don't want to make movies for kids, and I don't want to make movies for adults either."

"Sure, 'Twilight' is really huge right now and everybody's freaking out over it, but it will go away soon and I will be back to doing what I'm used to doing: weird little movies that nobody sees."

"Liberal democracy has endured because its institutions are designed for handling morally hazardous forms of coercive power. It puts the question of how far government should go to the cross fire of adversarial review."

"It's a good question, because a movie isn't good or bad based on its politics. It's usually good or bad for other reasons, though you might agree or disagree with its politics."

"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power."

"Things said by political parties are different from the decisions of the government which are taken to uphold the rule of law. The government takes decisions that are best for the country."