I had a very famous trainer tell me once 'You can usually train a wild animal but never tame a wild animal ever.' They are always going to be wild no matter what anybody says.

I'm not famous for my back story investigations I'm lucky that I work with good writers and it's usually in the script.

Actually bizarrely in America I get more appreciation from the odd unusual stuff I've done almost because I'm not if you like famous in America as I am in England.

Usually when I see someone famous for some reason I think I know them.

I hear the way people talk about the children of famous people. They're not treated very well. The presumptions are usually quite awful. So I tried to establish myself with a couple of movies. After 'Juno' I thought: 'I think I've defined myself enough as my own director that I'd love to work with my father.'

As children we recognized that we belonged to an unusual even exceptional family but the effect was different on each of us.

Until he lost all his money my father was a successful north London Jewish businessman. He was unusual among his immediate family in that he was enormously cultured and had an incredible library.

There is a common theme though in the stories I have told which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle.

It's not common for a woman on television especially if she's the mom of the family to be funny. She's usually a straight man or foil.

I'm often asked if I regret not going to Hollywood. I'm glad I didn't go because if I had I wouldn't have my extended family which is the fabric of my life. Only recently have I realised how special and unusual it is.

In the investigation of a neurotic style of life we must always suspect an opponent and note who suffers most because of the patient's condition. Usually this is a member of the family.

Faith means intense usually confident belief that is not based on evidence sufficient to command assent from every reasonable person.

Earmarks have become a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the people. This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.

Politicians are usually the first to forget that if you assume someone else is acting in bad faith they will do the same to you. Questioning motives poisons the well.

Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong you pull that parachute and the whole plane goes down slowly.

Success is usually the culmination of controlling failure.

It's been my experience that every time I think I know where it's at it's usually somewhere else.

When I'm home on a break I lock myself in my room and play guitar. After two or three hours I start getting into this total meditation. It's a feeling few people experience and that's usually when I come up with weird stuff. It just flows. I can't force myself. I don't sit down and say I've got to practice.

I know there are people who don't like their audience or like the experience of being recognized or celebrated but my audience has been very good - they don't bother me and when they do contact me it's usually on the nicest possible terms.

If you've got a piece and you can feel the person who's going to direct it is really made for it if it's really special for them then it's going to be a better-than-usual experience.

Most men are very attached to the idea of being male and usually experience a lot of fear and insecurity around the idea of being a man. Most women are very identified with their gender and also experience a tremendous amount of fear and insecurity.

But human experience is usually paradoxical that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk or even current philosophy.

A good education is usually harmful to a dancer. A good calf is better than a good head.

Without in any way minimising the economic and psychological blow that people experience when they lose their jobs the unemployed in affluent countries still have a safety net in the form of social security payments and usually free healthcare and free education for their children. They also have sanitation and safe drinking water.