One of the best things about growing up in New Zealand is that if you are prepared to work hard and have faith in yourself, truly anything is possible.

One does not simply walk into Mordor.

The big-budget blockbuster is becoming one of the most dependable forms of filmmaking.

The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself.

Remember, pain is temporary; film is forever.

If you work at love, you will find love at work.

Everybody's life has these moments, where one thing leads to another. Some are big and obvious and some are small and seemingly insignificant.

Filmmaking for me is always aiming for the imaginary movie and never achieving it.

Actors will never be replaced. The thought that somehow a computer version of a character is going to be something people prefer to look at is a ludicrous idea.

Every film is a challenge. I always say that making a movie is like film school - you're always learning. But unlike most schools, you never get done with it. You never learn everything.

I think that's the job of a director really, to sort of funnel all the creativity into one centralized point of being.

What are you addicted to: being thankful for your blessings or moaning about your problems?

Design can have such a positive impact on the way people live and on their relationships and moods.

...like the 75 billion souls who lived before him, each and every one a treasure, he, too, will die.

I can not imagine my life if I didn't have a music program in my school.

The guys who walk on Mars are going to be historic.

The Marine Corps taught me how to kill, but it didn't teach me how to deal with killing.

Its a combination of melody and lyrics, not one without the other. Its a confluence of these different elements that makes something powerful.

I never think of physical fighting. It's always spiritual. Fighting is spiritual.

The peculiar habit, when searching for a snack, of constantly returning to the refrigerator in hopes that something new will have materialized.

An author is a person who can never take innocent pleasure in visiting a bookstore again.