As a fine artist I was drawn to composition and technique. I would count the cuts.

The fun of directing for me, other than working with the actors, is trying to extract those ideas that you have in your head and make them real.

I've been clawing my way to directing since I was a kid.

I just wanted to make movies, but I never though about, "How am I being perceived because of my culture or my skin?"

If you can make the day, you can do whatever you want.

TV is all new to me because I came from features.

Ryan Murphy just gives new people a shot, and it takes a lot of confidence and generosity to do that.

I don't set out to do something weird, but if you see something a certain way and it's a little left of center, and you can realize it, that's a real thrill.

It becomes an extension of your imagination to make something tangible and concrete.

To me film school was film history because there weren't a lot of books out there that I had access to.

At some point, you have an opportunity to not be a first-time filmmaker anymore. You can embrace the genre and show the world how you can tell stories on a bigger scale.

I was there, the day that Horus killed the Emperor

Joe is never sure whether they're mad or just alarmingly and uncompromisingly incapable of self-delusion.

I would warn any minority student today against the temptations of self-segregation: take support and comfort from your own group as you can, but don’t hide within it.

At the risk bragging, one of the things I'm best at is riding coattails. Behind every successful man is me, smiling and taking partial credit.

The work is the most important thing.

Men who know are secure. Men who don't know believe in luck.

We may not be God, but we are of God, even as a little drop of water is of the ocean.

Tonglen dissolves your solid sense of "I'm the wise person, I'm going to help this poor, unfortunate loser."

If we destroy their environments and communities, we will lose the answers they have to solving our problems, and to the protection of our common futures.

I'm really inspired to build a billion-dollar company. The hardest part is building the vehicle to get you there.