It's fun when you start a movie, because it's kind of like you get to go Christmas shopping... you get to make your wish list and you start thinking about what each character needs.

I like hiring people based on a feeling - this person gets it - rather than what they've done in the past.

Even in this world where you’re getting everything you need and having this nice life, there’s still loneliness and longing and disconnection.

I always aspire to that, where it feels like the film was made by the characters as opposed to the filmmakers. I try to be invisible.

Don't differentiate between 'This is a job' and 'This is what I'm doing for fun.' It's all simultaneous.

You make a movie that is about what you want it to be about and let people have their reaction to it.

The things that are really out of control, and scary, are emotions - of people around you, that are unpredictable, or those in yourself which are unpredictable.

If I leave my phone in the car and go to dinner or something for a few hours, I'm very proud of myself.

The past is just a story we tell ourselves.

Doing a documentary is about discovering, being open, learning, and following curiosity.

Be willing to get fired for a good idea.

The friend of time doesn't spend all day saying: 'I haven't got time.' He doesn't fight with time. He accepts it and cherishes it.

Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true art. And after that, the whip came down.

Milton Hope led the singing of Happy Birthday ... He would say, 'Keep it sweet and short and don't try to be funny.'

We should not stop to reflect, compare, analyze, possess, but flow on and through, endlessly, like music.

The life prospects of an American are more dependent on the income and education of his parents than in any of the other advanced industrial countries.

It is important to meet people where they are. It reminds me of yoga, to which people may flock for the physical benefits, often to find that the spiritual benefits match or even outweigh them.

Children who are treated as if they are uneducable almost invariably become uneducable.

Who has not first tried to get out of a tough situation before truly dealing with it?

How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion.

Is it less dishonest to do what is wrong because it is not expressly prohibited by written law? Let us hope our moral principles are not yet in that stage of degeneracy.