It's a very slow process - two steps forward, one step back - but I'm inching in the right direction.
The most important thing is that you be a good person and you live by the golden rule of do unto others. If you live by that, that's all I care about.
Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.
The first time I ever met Stephen King, he came up to me, and we went to shake hands, and he had, like, this fake rubber rat that he kind of, you know, shook at me. You know, and I said, 'No, this is a cliche - this can't be. Stephen King is trying to scare me with a fake rat?' It was just really weird.
If you are a creative person, you try to create things that are an extension of yourself.
Every single person in jail for a violent crime had a nightmare childhood.
They always say girls mature faster than boys, but I don't think that's true because I think girls just are more mature than boys. We're always trying to catch up to them.
A lot of times I'll make films that are mostly character-driven films - stories that involve people. Like, I make the joke: I like to make movies about human beings that live on Earth.
I act once in awhile if something comes up that seems fun. I like to do it - it's a lot of fun because there's no responsibility. You let other people have the headaches. The director has all of the headaches.
When I read 'Stand By Me,' it was like, 'This is a look back at the same time period when I was growing up, and it was about kids, but it really felt like what it was like to have those powerful feelings of friendship at age 12.' That's what got to me.
Women, the way I see it, are very evolved people. They're more mature, they're more aware of their feelings, in touch with their feelings. They're connected to things that matter more in life. They know what's important. Men basically run around like idiots until we meet somebody who can show us that those things are important.
As far as getting my start, it was really Norman Lear, even aside from being on 'All in the Family.' He helped me get my start as a director. He was the one who said, 'Let him do 'Spinal Tap.' Let him give it a try,' because I had been trying for years to get that thing off the ground.
We agreed that we cannot let personal political attacks get in the way of doing the very best we can for California's children.
Martin Scorsese is one of the great filmmakers of all time.
I remember once, years ago, I met Sting, and he told me that he had seen 'Spinal Tap' 50 times. He said: 'Every time I watch it, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.'