There's a way of filming where you can get rid of the vanity and of trying to make something beautiful.

I respect the British a lot - their history, their past, their culture. I think it's beautiful, what they have with the monarchy.

I'm always aiming for some magic in films if I can find a mystical quality either in a song or in a moment or a character's intention.

When I do a mix tape for my kids, for my friends, for my lover, I meticulously choose the tracks, and it's beautiful. And when they are alone they think of me - and when I am alone I think of them.

As a director, try to be humble and not to overdo it, not overcoverage and over-covering the scene.

You've got to trust your instincts, your judgment and trust the storytelling that came before and the quality of the acting with the emotion.

Just film what's there, trust what came before, one hour before, and make it easy.

I look back, and I've got a couple of films, and I'm happy.

I love those films where I feel the director's confidence - where he doesn't need to overdo it with the shots and the cuts.

I'm from the 'less is more' school. I had to be in the 'more is more' zone with 'Dallas Buyers Club', so I was out of my comfort zone, but I had to trust that.

In a career, when you hit 40 and you've done a lot of this and that, you want to try some new things. I feel like that as a director, too, from one film to the other.

The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.

Time and suffering are inseperable. In life, as in physics, both are the common denominator of all experiences.

We are all wonderful souls.

For the choke, there are no "tough guys". With an arm lock he can be tough and resist the pain. With the choke he just passes out, goes to sleep.

One of my mottos for living is: never eat on a boat, unless you own the boat.

[Contemporary writer] could be a kind of [Samuel] Beckett who would not be felt to be totally committed to despair.

I know that God our Father is in this work in great congregations . . . and in the smallest branch and the smallest congregation.

Not all who own a harp are harpers.

Make a commitment to having fun. See your best friends and make time for your hobbies and passions.

What would this country be without this great land of ours.