An audience is always warming but it must never be necessary to your work.

I am a real ham. I love an audience. I work better with an audience. I am dead in fact without one.

The audience is the best judge of anything. They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags - they're gonna cough.

The first year I started in San Francisco there was an American work on every program and there's been a lot of music by living composers and gradually that was part of the process of getting the audience really to trust me.

These are very subtle things of course and I don't expect everyone to pick them up consciously but I think that there is something there that you must be able to feel there is an energy at work that I must trust my audience will be able to pick up at some level.

Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought of purpose and of action over a long period of time.

I try to forget about the expectation that's out there and the audience listening for the next thing so that I'm not trying to please them. I've spent a huge amount of time not communicating with those folks and denying that they exist.

Well in our industry it's that the movies cost so much money to make they have to appeal to a broad audience. And I think that's part of what will loosen up in the future as technology makes it cheaper you'll be able to make films for a more selective audience. I think people will be able to make more personal movies.

Obviously CGI in the last ten years has gone through such leaps and bounds that today people are looking for these kinds of movies to wow audiences with technology.

The technology is really where all of the changes have taken place but the fundamentals of a good story being the basis of every good picture and really the only basis still remains the rule more so today I think because we've unfortunately weaned an audience from birth to kind of mindless movies.

Everything's changed. The technology is the big thing changing now the way movies like 'Alice' or 'Avatar' are made. And technology on the other side the audience side. Word spreads so fast now on a movie with the Internet and piracy is something coming down the line like in the music industry.

Language is a more recent technology. Your body language your eyes your energy will come through to your audience before you even start speaking.

But in each case as a filmmaker who's been given sizable budgets with which to work I feel a responsibility to the audience to be shooting with the absolute highest quality technology that I can and make the film in a way that I want.

A good teacher like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention then he can teach his lesson.

There's no greater way to gain an audience's sympathy than by being unfortunate.

Actors who are lovers in real life are often incapable if playing the part of lovers to an audience. It is equally true that sympathy between actors who are not lovers may create a temporary emotion that is perfectly sincere.

I sometimes get that wonderful sympathy between me and the audience telling me I've reached their hearts. And when I do the thrill is mine.

I would love to be a guest on a talk show or a panel that shows women who have been on reality shows who've had success to prove to audiences that you don't have to be a fool to become successful.

A sign now of success with a certain audience when you do a short comedy piece anywhere is that it gets on YouTube and gets around. It's always something you're thinking about unconsciously.

It's very easy for me to say what success is. I think success is connecting with an audience who understands you and having a dialogue with them. I think success is continuing to push yourself forward creatively and not sort of becoming a caricature of yourself.

I understand why creative people like dark but American audiences don't like dark. They like story. They do not respond to nervous breakdowns and unhappy episodes that lead nowhere. They like their characters to be a part of the action. They like strength not weakness a chance to work out any dilemma.

I don't think there's anything that is a greater area of discrimination against women today than the fact that nowhere in the world is there a female role model in team sports that more than half of a general audience would recognize.

RFK was a compelling figure because he was willing to challenge his audiences and in turn connect with them in a unique way. Kennedy showed that our values define us and can inspire others to believe in the possibility of change and a better society.

I always challenge myself. I get out in deep water and I always try to get back. But I get hung up. The audience never knows but that's when I smile the most when I show the most ivory.