It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

I knew Billy Wilder socially and would have loved to work with him.

I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.

Set up a situation that presents you with something slightly beyond your reach.

I played a lot of tough clubs in my time. Once a guy in one of those clubs wanted to bet me $10 that I was dead. I was afraid to bet.

It’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.

Let me just tell you how thrilling it really is, and how, what a challenge it is, because in 1988 the question is whether we’re going forward to tomorrow or whether we’re going to go past to the – to the back!

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

I think it’s quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you’ve got another reason for keeping fit.

I swam underwater for 50 meters at a time and walked the length of the pool underwater, with a brick in each hand, all on a single breath.

The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

I liked Vittorio De Sica a lot, and I got to work with him once in a segment movie. He was a great director. He was a very charismatic character and a guy I watched a lot when he was directing.

Winning the title in England is the biggest challenge of them all.

I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

I’ve always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he’s been in front of the camera. He doesn’t have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.

Go on, prove me wrong. Destroy the fabric of the universe. See if I care.

If you want to thrive in today’s economy, you must challenge the status quo and get the financial education necessary to succeed.

To become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.

War is so complex; human nature is so complex. There’s no filmmaker who has ever figured it out perfectly.

I told Warren if he mentions Prop. 13 one more time, he has to do 500 push-ups.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.

I feel like I might be a designer or stylist – or a director because I have always been super interested in cameras and editing.

Bring them on.

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

Golf without bunkers and hazards would be tame and monotonous. So would life.

I’ve arrived at the place if I’m not taking a career risk, I’m not happy. If I’m scared, then I know I’m being challenged.

Every season is a new challenge to me, and I always set out to improve in terms of games, goals, assists.

When people say, you know, ‚Good teacher,‘ ‚Prophet,‘ ‚Really nice guy’… this is not how Jesus thought of Himself. So you’re left with a challenge in that, which is either Jesus was who he said he was or a complete and utter nut case. You have to make a choice on that.

In my career as a director, there’s always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: ‚What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?‘ At that time you have to say: ‚OK, forget that and just go ahead.‘

Winning, to me, is easy. Winning more is the challenge.

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

When I’m ready to fight, my opponent has a better chance of surviving a forest fire wearing gasoline drawers.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don’t move fast, but I just keep moving.

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.

I’ve choreographed all of my movies.

If danger arises in the present moment, there may be an emotion. There may even be pain. But that’s a challenge, not a problem. For a problem to exist, you need time and repetitive mind activity.

I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad… he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.

The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.

If I wished to do something, even if I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to make the effort with me, I would go out solo climbing. I did find solo climbing very challenging and a little frightening. You knew that you were completely on your own, and you had to overcome all the problems and possible dangers.

The glory of the nation rests in the character of her men. And character comes from boyhood. Thus, every boy is a challenge to his elders.

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

The challenge for me as an actor is if you become a celebrity, you don’t meet strangers anymore. And strangers are where we have our anonymity. And I believe it’s essential for the soul to be anonymous, especially if you’re going to be an actor.

Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.

It’s getting harder to make decisions to just want to do something to work… I’m trying to find things that are extremely challenging or mean something to me deeply.

At some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.

Steven Spielberg was my childhood hero.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

Alfred Hitchcock once told me, when I was analyzing a lot of things about his pictures, ‚Clint, you must remember, it’s only a movie.‘

I really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama.

I just really want to get music out and tour and go places I’ve never been, and just do more videos. I love photography and videography, and so I really want to direct videos when I can.

Because of my wrestling background, nothing a director can throw at me on a set can faze me.

I’m not confrontational, but if someone challenges, I’m not going to back down.