'You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody's squabbling, there's corruption.'

'[In ancient Rome,] why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew? Why did France after they got rid of the king an…

'Being in Washington is more fictional than being in Hollywood.'

'When I wrote it [Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith], Iraq didn't exist: We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We di…