I'm a spoilt brat. I thought I was just going to walk in and make movies. But I'd been my own boss for so long that all of a sudden to be facing a roomful of people who were niggling over every little scene... I just thought I'd go back and draw my comics and have a happy life.

And the VCR did the same thing: the movie industry thought nobody would ever watch movies any more.

When we were doing 'Freaks and Geeks' I didn't quite understand how movies and TV worked and I would improvise even if the camera wasn't on me. I thought I was helping the other actors by keeping them on their toes but nobody appreciated it when I would trip them up. So I was improvising a little bit back then but not in a productive way.

I loved the movies and I wanted to be like Marilyn Monroe. I thought she was so glamorous and everyone seemed to love her. I wanted to be like that and I told everyone I would be the next Marilyn Monroe.

I feel like I'm a fighter. I've fought my whole life to get to where I'm at. I like fight movies. When someone gets knocked down I like to root for him to succeed.

Well it was actually - I brought the idea of doing a documentary to HBO back in 2000 when there were some press reports sort of were bandied about that there were going to TV movies based on some of the books that were out.

I was watching 'Up In The Air' and I thought 'Jesus who's the old gray-haired guy?' And it was me. I never wear makeup for movies and now it's starting to show.

The movies that are made more thoughtfully or made or with more ambition often get just get drowned out by the noise.

I want to make all kinds of movies. I do want to make big movies that are a lot of fun to go to but I also want to make movies that are going to stimulate some thought and maybe raise some awareness.

I think I took my eye off the ball. From about 2005 2006 2007 I was out of it. I thought I could oversee movies and have it done for me so to speak.

I hate movies that tell people what to think. I'm proud that Democrats thought 'Thank You For Smoking' was their film and Republicans thought it was theirs. I'm proud that pro-choice people thought 'Juno' was their film and pro-life people thought it was theirs.

I have been in movies that I thought I wasn't very good in.

I've made movies that we're very successful that we're a complete surprise and I've made movies that I thought we're going to be very successful that you know.

The next thing I knew I was out of the service and making movies again. My first picture was called GI Blues. I thought I was still in the army.

A film is a petrified fountain of thought.

I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

I think public service is a calling and you do it as long as the things that brought you into the office can continue getting you up in the morning and as long as there's still work to get done.

The newspaper is a marvelous medium. It is extraordinarily convenient and cheap. Let's see. This one cost 75 cents. Now that's a little high. I bought it when I was downtown this morning.

They put me on the shift where they thought I could do the least harm midnight to eight in the morning. Although the hours were lousy they were perfect for an apprentice reporter.

I have come to understand and appreciate writers much more recently since I started working on a book last fall. Before that I thought golf writers got up every morning played a round of golf had lunch showed up for our last three holes and then went to dinner.

All morning they watched for the plane which they thought would be looking for them. They cursed war in general and PTs in particular. At about ten o'clock the hulk heaved a moist sigh and turned turtle.

I doing casual labor by the day. They wouldn't pay you until the next morning. There was a bar that would cash your check if you bought a beer first. A lot of guys never left until they'd drunk up all their money.

I made that decision back in 1985. I was out here getting certified in SCUBA with Garcia in Kona and I thought to myself this is a place to wake up in in the morning.