Films must all have the same structure. All of this to guarantee box office bonanza, which of course it never does, but that’s another discussion entirely.

A stage play requires very different craft from a book, fiction or otherwise, and ditto from a screenplay.

I have written two nonfiction books, I’m embarrassed to say.

Life has never been easy. Nor is it meant to be. It is a matter of being joyous in the face of sorrow.

My favorite thing is to be alone in a room with a blank paper in front of me and the time to fill it.

If you want to have great success, you’d better give them what they want, but so be it.

If we wait until our lives are free from sorrow or difficulty, then we wait forever. And miss the entire point.

I write from the same place I parent, and since becoming a single parent, I have found it difficult, if not impossible, to write anything of length.

I am very abnormal… But it wasn’t very long ago that I wasn’t so abnormal. I was very normal and headed for a lifetime of paying medical bills as proof of my normalcy.

There is a divine moment in our lives when we all become one. It’s called procreation, and it is reborn, continually and forever.

It helps to be able to be alone. ‘Cuz writing is done alone, unless you collaborate, but I don’t do that. Ask my ex-wife.

Time is money, as they say, and it was never more apropos than on a television show, where a minute is worth about $200!

I can still fit into my Battlestar Galactica costume!

I’m a classic example of what can happen if you follow your inner voice. I was cursed with interests and some talent in many different areas. It confuses people.

Movies are movies, television is television.

When I was a young actor… the more different you were from the part you played, the more talent it reflected.

I write from my imagination, not from what I’ve read in books or seen on TV or to make money. I wrote from an idea I was passionate about.

It is all about marketing; that is where the real craft comes in. The best actors do not necessarily become the biggest stars. And vice versa.

Films must all have the same structure. All of this to guarantee box office bonanza, which of course it never does, but that’s another discussion entirely.

The best things in life are usually difficult.

The space genre is timeless.

From Fred Astaire I learned discipline and hard work.

In many ways I wish I wasn’t an actor dragging around the baggage from being one so that I could just devote my energies to encouraging people to find their true selves.

The only difference from one $100 million budget film to another is which of the 12 box stars are getting $20 million to be in it.

Harrison Ford was pretty content as a carpenter who thought it would be nice to work on TV and ended up being the biggest film star in the history of cinema.

I never get involved with the ladies I work with.

You can’t leave civilization behind entirely.

I’m the worst person to ask about how to get noticed. It took me 25 years.

Children… are our legacy. Our responsibility. They are our destiny and we are theirs. The extent to which we fail as parents, we fail as God’s children.

Be very clear as to what your dream is. Nowadays it is fairly certain that 90 percent of all actors really just want to be rich and famous as the solution to all that ails.

I believe that the first 8 years are most important and the time in a child’s life when parents must be absolutely and completely present.

Hollywood… a city I was to come back to time and again, in sickness and in health, in success and in failure, with anticipation and with dread.

Hollywood today is all about being consistent. All thinking in mainstream film business takes place in one box.

From dear, dear Gloria Swanson, I learned how to live long, happy and free of health problems. I owe her my life.

I wanted to be Anthony Hopkins and ended up being neither a film star nor having a career on the stage.

Life: my favorite occupation.

It is a good motive, fame and money, as it is tangible and measurable. Being an artist is neither measurable nor tangible and certainly not a way to become rich.

We are all vegetarians here, and except for a mountain lion that’s been hanging around and killed our dog, we don’t have a care in the world.

Generally speaking, actors are allowed NO input. Actors are dumb.

To me, all writing is like music. And especially dialogue. I studied music in college; that is what I wanted to be, a composer. Acting got me sidetracked.

I am very willing to share whatever I know or feel I know about finding some serenity in this lifetime.

America is terrified of the passage of time. Prozac Nation. Land of Face Lifts.

Children who cling to parents or who don’t want to leave home are stunted in their emotional, psychological growth.

Change is good. And in fact unavoidable.

Anybody can write a film script ‘cuz it has been reduced to a formula.