I am fascinated with times past.

To me, length is an artificial and arbitrary factor in a film.

I spent 20 years of my career primarily being a writer for hire.

I think once you've finished a movie you really have to detach from it so that you can come back and watch it as an audience member.

The one thing I've learned, getting out to all those foreign and domestic locales, is that people in every country of the 'civilized' world wish - either secretly or openly - that they had the expressiveness, the flair, the I'm-so-glad-to-be-me spirit that black folks have made a part of American life.

When Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can't explain... I don't need to. I know that if there's a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart.

I was trying to manage school and training for the Olympics and ended up not doing well at either. That was a big lesson in my life. My mother expected both.

The truth is that wreaths have never really been part of my creative life. I like them and want them and know how to do them.