I was the kind of kid that had some talents or ability, but it never came out in school.

I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.

When I was about 9, I had polio, and people were very frightened for their children, so you tended to be isolated. I was paralyzed for a while, so I watched television.

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before?

I used to love going into local hardware stores, to look at little things they made locally. Nowadays it's harder, though you can still do it in Vietnam.

I had an older brother who was very interested in literature, so I had an early exposure to literature, and and theater. My father sometimes would work in musical comedies.

There's nothing creative about living within your means.

Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

We were raised in an Italian-American household, although we didn't speak Italian in the house. We were very proud of being Italian, and had Italian music, ate Italian food.

You don't have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.

If the movie works, nobody notices the mistakes... If the movie doesn't work, the only thing people notice are mistakes.

Creativity is nature. Nature is creativity.

Fairy dust is very useful. I use it to turn oatmeal into cake.

The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman.

I long to be out in the sun with no work to be done.

I did Brad's first film The Take and I'm glad Brad [Furman] has not calmed down. I don't want him to ever calm down.

The blessing is not about being able to receive as much as it is being in a position to give back to others.

If the only motive was to help people who could not afford education, advocates of government involvement would have simply proposed tuition subsidies.

Decisions, they shape our destiny.

If thou art of elephant-strength or of lion-claw, still peace is, in my opinion, better than strife.

Childhood is like a mirror, which reflects in after life the images first presented to it.