You really think that on my films people tell me what to do? I don't think so. On my films I decide.

The ugly duckling is a misunderstood universal myth. It's not about turning into a blonde Barbie doll or becoming what you dream of being; it's about self-revelation, becoming who you are.

Western films don't do very well in India.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself

Ultimately, you have to pursue your own path, not someone's idea of the right path. You need to stay on your path.

If Paris is a city of lights, Sydney is the city of fireworks.

The race is long but in the end it is only with YOURSELF.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.

I really believe musical form will go on. There's got to be a way of making musical form in cinema live again.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.

All good, clean stories are melodrama, it's just the set of devices that determines how you show or hide it.

If a good man can't sleep after hurting people, then he should learn much more to be a leader.

The first duty of an historian is to be on his guard against his own sympathies.

Music is gathering. Taking our scattered thoughts and senses and coalescing us back into our core. Music is powerful. The first few chords can change us where no self-help books can.

After the film it was raining, a light steady rain. Ruthless neon on the wet streets like busted candy.

You have to break through the structure of your own stonework habit just to make yourself listen.

I'm about being the best.

The avocation of assessing the failures of better men can be turned into a comfortable livelihood, providing you back it up with a Ph.D.

In a novel, if you're any good, you don't just have good people or bad people. You have complicated people. You have real people.

Before she got here everything had stalled inside me, and every morning I was just moving toward nighttime.