With Cold Sassy Tree having its first production, I saw no necessity to do anything other than produce it with the correct setting.

Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all.

When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.

There were movies that always made me want to be a director. You see brilliant scenes and the way the emotions were handled. I thought, I'd really like to do that.

With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life.

Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied.

The music of the most popular operas is so highly esteemed, it can stand endless revivals.

It's not enough to hit the notes. There is no point in the singers just standing there and sounding wonderful if they're not connecting with the characters they are portraying.

On stage, the audience watches from a fixed viewpoint and the director cannot retake something he doesn't like. It has to work straight through.

I may have faults but being wrong ain't one of them.

If you go around being afraid, you're never going to enjoy life. You have only one chance, so you've got to have fun.

Scientific thought and its creation is the common and shared heritage of mankind.

I am not a historian. I am a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past

Have you seen the deer heads on the walls of bars, the ones wearing party hats, sunglasses and streamers? I feel sorry for them because obviously they were at a party having a good time.

I am always really buzzed after each performance, and at around one in the morning, Ill hit a brick wall and need to sleep.

The pace of technological change in recent years has been both impressive and positive for consumers.

Needless to say, you've got to have someone who can speak for you.

I read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school and was hypnotized by the beauty of the sentences and moved by the story about the irrevocability of lost love.

When I got to professional ball I used to play 150 games every year. It depends on how many games there was.