[On his screenwriting] "I always write from an actor's perspective, which is writing dialogue that fits comfortably into one's mouth, as opposed to dialogue that is strained and defective." "A movie script is a malleable entity when you're shooting and should be able to become different things and should be able to be rewritten at the last minute." "I'm fairly competent as a director and actor, but I am Mr. Neurotic as a writer. I just don't have enough confidence in my abilities to take criticism well. I take it personally. Start with 'It's a masterpiece,' and then tell me what you think could be changed." "We have right now a media that is willfully ignoring the high crimes and misdemeanors of the president of the United States. Clinton lied about a blow job, and got impeached by the media and Congress. Bush got us into the Iraq war based on lies that he knew were lies. ... His war has recruited more Al- Qaeda members than Osama bin Laden could ever have dreamed for ... yet no one in the media is calling for impeachment. Unfortunately, the book and the play is more relevant now than it ever has been. It talks about continuous warfare as a means to control the Western economy, and as a way to control rebel elements within society through the use of fear, constant fear. In my country we seem to be sanctioning renditioning of innocent people without trial ... put them in jail without telling anyone ... and torture them out of suspicion of what we think they might do. This is exactly what Orwell was talking about when he spoke of thought crimes." "I'm six foot four and a half and I have a temper." "Hollywood is full of closet Republicans, and also you're sometimes not sure who your friends are. When the whole Bull Durham controversy happened there were three people who came very vociferously to our support, all either very conservative Democrats or Republicans - Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner and Jack Valenti. And how many liberals? I didn't see any. So I am not one that makes a judgment on someone because they are Republican. I know enough Republicans that are decent people, they love their families, we might have differences of opinion but we can find common ground."