No matter how dark things may get in a story, I feel it's the responsibility of the storyteller to leave the audience with at least a shred of hope.

I like movies that are about real people in real time with real problems.

It really shocks me when I encounter people who think kindness doesn't matter. Because I think it's pretty much the only thing that matters.

In college, you're kind of designing who you want to be. And I wanted to be a big reader.

I kicked college nostalgia in my late 20s. As much as I loved college and treasure the memories, I no longer want to go back.

I care about reading, a lot. It's a big part of my life.

Even though I occasionally appear on it, I don't watch television.

Kindness is not about instant gratification. More often, it's akin to a low-risk investment that appreciates steadily over time.

Film allows me to ask some really big questions with the time to explore them deeply. I love the form.

I actually have a thing about proper nouns. They clang on my ear in a weird way when I hear them dropped into movies.

All of the things I used to obsess over, I'm no longer as obsessed with. I have new concerns but they're a little more existential or cosmic.

Only times and places, only names and ghosts.

As an adolescent, Spider-Man was what got me through tough times in terms of being a skinny kid.

Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It's the mastery of fear. It's about getting up one more time than we fall down.

You want a little talent on that?

Perception defines everything.

In Shakespeare's day it was women who were being burned at the stake as witches... not men. The men were thought of as alchemists. But women doing the same thing would be a witch and would be burned.

She was no longer theirs. She was his. And he was hers. And this was their world.

Got the eye of the tiger, the lion of Judah

There is properly no history, only biography.

As I said, if you don't stand up for yourself, people aren't going to think that you can stand up for them.