I believe that every director's films reflect their lifestyle.

When you are completely satisfied with what you have made, you're pretty much done as a director. So when that happens, that'll sort of be the end.

For me, trying to expand the energy to make one movie in Hollywood would be the equivalent in terms of energy to making 10 movies in Japan.

Filmmaking is not a balancing act, although some directors think it is. I don't believe in it. I like ups and downs. They're the best way to translate my feelings to the screen.

You can't really make something or make a movie and feel all through the process that it's a painful thing. It's not possible to do that.

I can't single out one thing that influenced me. My generation was influenced greatly by the manga that came out during our childhood.

I don't know if I would call it therapy, but filmmaking is really the only thing I know how to do. For me, making movies is a way to bring on change for myself, and I really enjoy that part.

I go to the dentist, not a shrink.

As a filmmaker, you've got to have a nose for what's going on culturally. You have to feel it. It doesn't have to be manga or music, but you need some kind of antenna. That's very important.

And if I'm running away from something, I try to make myself face it and overcome that initial fear. As a director, I don't think it's possible to make a movie that you really don't want to make.

If you're trying to be realistic and bring real life to the screen, you are going to have different elements. That's what I'm trying to do. As I make the movie, different elements come in naturally.

If you follow someone who decides to leave your life, you are walking away from yourself.

If you decide that what God is asking you to do with your life is just too much on you and is just a little too inconvenient, then you will never see the miracles he has for you.

Until my Yoga practice became the great facilitator of all things in my life, the integration of career, purpose and motherhood felt like an unattainable dream.

That's the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people other than me.

My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart, and to heal the broken one.

I definitely wouldn't mind gaining a few more pounds at all.

Boston is not an avant garde place. It stays literally 15 to 20 years behind New York at all times.

Throw your hands up in the air and celebrate life.

Love is like a flower, even the most beautiful kind dies.

I worry about what we'll do in the future, [about the instantaneous co-opting of pop culture]. Where is our new stuff going to come from?