Quotes from Edward Norton

The best films of any kind, narrative or documentary, provoke questions.

I never think that a film should answer questions for you. I think it should make you ask a lot of questions.

Anybody who is running a marathon or doing a walkathon, doing a fundraiser for their school, their company, by far it's guaranteed the easiest and most fun way to quickly set up a fundraising campaign and send it around to your friends and family.

I read a lot of scripts and so many are clearly a knockoff of one familiar genre or another.

I think technology is having a democratising effect on film.

If two people are at completely different stages in their spiritual life, that can present a real problem.

As we say in the sewer, time and tide wait for no man.

I'm not a very methodologically pure actor. Almost every time that I start, I feel completely at sea. Always at the beginning I feel like a fraud, really, because I'm never sure how to get started.

I don't get much out of doing a red carpet.

People are worried about the degree to which corporate interest is starting to threaten human interest.

It's better for people to miss you than to have seen too much of you.

If you try to make interesting films, you're going to be disappointed most of the time. I choose just not to look at it that way.

I don't tend to say it's time for one of this or that genre. Things flow to you in a strange way, and why you bump into a certain kind of thing in one moment is...it's hard to explain.

I knew Danny DeVito and he knew me, so he wanted me to try Death to Smoochy. I loved that stuff and had a great time doing it.

I've always liked the idea of taking old dramatic ideas and devices and making them feel relevant or contemporary or whatever.

People wrestle sometimes making movies, and I think that conflict is a very essential thing. I think a lot of very happy productions have produced a lot of very banal movies.

I do find myself drawn more to pieces that I feel are wrestling with the way that we're living now, what we're all going through.

When I'm the one who sits down and looks at the blank page and writes it out all the way, then I'll call it my script.

Basically, I think 21st century conservation is moving toward preserving ecosystems by dealing with the needs of people.

If I'm trying to put size on for a role, then I don't do much running.

I'm a New Yorker, you know.

When people come together too young, they try to become one person. As you get older, you realize that you don't want to become one person because then you lose the person you are.

I don't smoke and I don't want to smoke. I am not a fan of gratuitous smoking in films.

I just like working with smart people.