For me, to catch, to celebrate the reality and life and friends and everything around me the very moment it happens - that's what is, that's what I'm possessed by.

For an artist, to be normal is a disaster

In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets.

My films are the celebration of reality, of life, of my friends, of actual daily life that passes and is gone tomorrow. We don't pay attention to it when it happens.

An adventurer can always return home; an exile cannot. So I decided that my home would be culture.

In Lithuania, I am known as a poet, and they don’t care about my cinema. In Europe they don’t know my poetry; in Europe, I am a filmmaker. But here, in the United States, I am only a maverick!

In a meadow full of flowers you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry of life.

The deeper I went into culture, the more confused I got. So I needed something more real. I said, "Okay, from now on, my country will be cinema."

The nature of the video camera really makes you focus on the present. Since I have always been a diarist filmmaker, not one who stages scenes with actors, it has always been about the present moment.

Seek the insignificant small but essential qualities, essential to life

I'm not an abstract artist; I leave that to others. To me, abstract art ended with Kazimir Malevich's 'Black Square.' To continue it is senseless.

Running a company on market research is like driving while looking in the rear view mirror.

Dont test me, Second guess me, Protest me, You will DISAPEAR! (East Jesus of Nowhere)

An artist's sphere of influence is the world.

The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileg'd beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.

No negotiation is ever possible if you have to negotiate not only with the people in the room but also with some other committee in permanent session.

I bet the worst part about dying is the part where your whole life passes before you.

I'd feel more comfortable talking to the blacks, or Hispanics, or the poor areas. I feel more at home, believe it or not.

I still do not know where the notes will come from when I accept a commission for a new work.

Travel is an act of humility

Through all of youth I was looking for you without knowing what I was looking for