I'm always happy when I hear about people selling records or selling books or selling movies. It makes me proud of them.

Well the thing about great fictional characters from literature and the reason that they're constantly turned into characters in movies is that they completely speak to what makes people human.

I think everyone who makes movies should be forced to do television. Because you have to finish. You have to get it done and there are a lot of decisions made just for the sake of making decisions. You do something because it's efficient and because it gets the story told and it connects to the audience.

In anything I've ever written all the characters sound like me which I don't think is a bad thing. It makes sense. But I had always admired filmmakers who made movies that didn't sound like them at all.

As much as I hate his movies Oliver Stone has an aspiration I admire and that is that he wants his art to be part of what makes and changes public policy and cultural practice.

With the CGI suddenly there's a thousand enemies instead of six - the army goes off into the horizon. You don't need that. The audience loses its relationship with the threat on the screen. That's something that's consistently happening and it makes these movies like video games and that's a soulless enterprise. It's all kinetics without emotion.

If the goal is to get the best artists actors and filmmakers in the world to create the best movies Hollywood does a decent job. And I think no one would disagree with me that it also makes a ton of bad movies and employs a bunch of hacks.

When people ask me what makes movies great it's the material.

As far as writing I like watching bad movies. Nothing stops me in my tracks more than watching a great film like 'The Godfather' or 'Dog Day Afternoon' or 'The Graduate.' You watch one of those and you never want to write again. Whereas with bad movies it makes you think If that counts I certainly could write.

And what I like about it is it makes me happy and I think it makes a lot of people happy to go to the movies and to not think about the problems of the day or the problems of tomorrow or the yesterday and just go on for the ride and have the fun of losing oneself in a fantasy.

My children have never watched any of my films. Charlie knows that daddy makes movies but he says they are not good enough for him to watch.

Nobody makes movies like Oliver Stone.

Nobody makes movies bad on purpose.

A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad.

Everything makes me nervous - except making films.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

Before I go to bed at night I ice my face because it closes your pores and makes a difference in the morning.

In Rio Bravo when Duke makes love to Feathers the scene dissolves to the next morning where we see him putting on his vest and almost humming. It was subtle but you knew what happened. Give me a towel and some blankets any day!

This morning of the small snow I count the blessings the leak in the faucet which makes of the sink time the drop of the water on water.

That's the biggest part of doing comics: You have to create stuff that makes you want to get out of bed every morning and get to work.

I have mugs of hot water every morning because the studio is cold and also because it makes my throat sound clearer.

We all wake up in the morning wanting to live our lives the way we know we should. But we usually don't in small ways. That's what makes a character like Batman so fascinating. He plays out our conflicts on a much larger scale.

I try to make films that I find exciting. It makes me want to get out of bed at five in the morning have my make-up done and play for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day money is just a proxy for votes. That is what makes politics so vulnerable to social media.