"No illusion is more crucial than the illusion that great success and huge money buy you immunity from the common ills of mankind, such as cars that won't start."

"Self-parody is the first portent of age."

"A man that ain't willin' to cheat for a poke don't want it bad enough."

"One of the things that Ang brings to all of his projects is his deep sense of being a double exile, an outsider's outsider."

"If we know anything about man, it's that he's not pacific. The temptation to butcher anyone considered undesirable seems to be a common temptation, not always resisted."

"Incompetents invariably make trouble for people other than themselves."

"You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination."

"Backward is just not a natural direction for Americans to look - historical ignorance remains a national characteristic."

"True maturity is only reached when a man realizes he has become a father figure to his girlfriends' boyfriends - and he accepts it."

"Americans don't want cowboys to be gay."

"Members of the Academy are mostly urban people. We are an urban nation. We are not a rural nation. It's not easy even to get a rural story made."