Awareness of insanity does not make one any less insane. Awareness of drowning does not make one any less of a drowning person--it only adds the burden of panic

When I was a teenager there was no video in my country. Betamax came to Mexico very slowly.

But I think we are seeing a resurgence of the graphic ghost story like The Others, Devil's Backbone and The Sixth Sense. It is a return to more gothic atmospheric ghost storytelling.

In a world where we are so pragmatic and materialistic, fear is the only emotion that allows even a sophisticated person to believe in something beyond.

You only find yourself when you disobey. Disobedience is the beginning of responsibility, I think.

The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wistfully; it simply flies on.

If you're not operating on an instinctive level, you're not an artist.... Reason over emotion is bullshit, absolute bullshit... We suffocate ourselves in rules. I find fantasy liberating.

I have a sort of a fetish for insects, clockwork, monsters, dark places, and unborn things

Well, the first thing is that I love monsters, I identify with monsters.

You have to believe the magic to see it.

Night is real. Night is not an absence of light, but in fact, it is daytime that is a brief respite from the looming darkness.

I don't deserve a soul, yet I still have one. I know because it hurts.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

As a result of a kiss, there arises in the mind a wonderful feeling of delight that awakens and binds together the love of them that kiss.

Too many young girls have eating disorders due to low self-esteem and distorted body image. I think it's so important for girls to love themselves and to treat their bodies respectfully.

And imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.

I have very fond memories of my childhood in Afghanistan, largely because my memories, unlike those of the current generation of Afghans, are untainted by the spectre of war, landmines, and famine.

We went to the British Museum, and I was looking up my family in the books - pages and pages on it.

Never let go of the people that you love, because without them, what else have you got?

It is extremely ironic that the more we care about what people think about us the less we care about people, and the less we care about what people think about us the more we begin to care for others

It’s only the sea,’ said Moomintroll. ‘Every wave that dies on the beach sings a little song to a shell. But you mustn’t go inside because it’s a labyrinth and you may never come out again.