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.

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.

If someone already knows you from being in the trenches with you on this TV schedules, and then you have a little bit more time, it's a treat for them, as well, because they can give you more.

Books and workshops and gurus are great, but the very best teacher for your mind is, and will always be, your heart.

Any entrepreneur with the title 'CEO' on his biz card has got a hell of a lot to learn yet.

"Brave admiral say but one good word: What shall we do when hope is gone?" The words leapt like a leaping sword: "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

If I tell you I'm good, probably you will say I'm boasting. But if I tell you I'm not good, you'll know I'm lying.

Every thought was once a poem.

Anger may bring extra energy, but it eclipses the best part of our brain: its rationality. The energy of anger is almost always unreliable.

The reason why men who mind their own business succeed is that they have so little competition.

Dream, diversify-and never miss an angle.

To say that you now trust the Russian military command and control system because some Russian general told you from the bottom of his heart that's the case, strikes me as most unrealistic.