Sometimes a scene may be about one thing and it may end up still being about that but the emotionality of it comes from somewhere else or the humor of it comes from somewhere else and it gives it that real-life quality.

I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make and that gives me hope.

If you're lucky enough to be involved in a film that's about something very real and that you hope will continue to hold up in 20 years' time it just gives you more energy and makes it feel all the more worthwhile.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

For all their current prestige Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza or Peshawar as romantics with little chance of more than symbolic victories however bloody and brutal. That gives both the Middle East and the West a small and distant hope of security.

I do believe that most men live lives of quiet desperation. For despair optimism is the only practical solution. Hope is practical. Because eliminate that and it's pretty scary. Hope at least gives you the option of living.

A person who no matter how desperate the situation gives others hope is a true leader.

But then there are magical beautiful things in the world. There's incredible acts of kindness and bravery and in the most unlikely places and it gives you hope.

Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity.

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.