My cultural roots are something illusive.

We need storytelling. Otherwise life just goes on and on, like the number Pi.

I see a movie as a way of learning about the world, about myself, and learning about my relationship with people and art.

I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama.

My hometown was one of the major U.S. Air Force bases.

I think people are universal.

Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.

Every movie I make. That’s my hideout, the place I don’t quite understand, but feel most at home.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me

I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures.

Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world.

I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.

Spend your time with family and people you love. Don't wait for festivals be with them, each moment you're with them, that's a festival.

Every arrow that flies feels the pull of the earth.

Here is a rule to remember when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is a misfortune " but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."

Best of an island is once you get there - you can't go any farther...you've come to the end of things.

the less you had, the more careful you had to be about everything you did have.

Jesus loves you... He's not 'in love' with you.

Language is like drinking from one's own reflection in still water. We only take from it what we are at the time.

I think it is really really important that those of us who have deep-faith lives don't feel like we could substitute our own views for everybody else in society regardless of their views.

There is nothing you can do to assuage your conscience when you commit sins. Crime is a spiritual assault on the soul.