In a way, artists are shamans, facilitators who take what's there, channel it through themselves, then put it out there for people to appreciate.

One of the reasons I love to jump back and forth between mediums is that film does allow me to be more literal. I can go to the real place. I can go to the Coliseum, and I don't have to fake it.

When I was thinking about The Lion King, I said, we have to do what theater does best. What theater does best is to be abstract and not to do literal reality.

I think we all see the world from our own little unique bubble.

I really do believe that if you don't challenge yourself and risk failing, that it's not interesting.

There is incredible power in the arts to inspire and influence.

When you break into song, it's not about dialogue, it's not about how you would speak in a naturalistic sense-it's about expressing your inner torment or your inner joy.

Theater is far superior to film in poetry, in abstract poetry.

What I don't have in theater is editing.

An artist is an entertainer, number one - a storyteller who takes people someplace, who gives them what they didn't know they wanted.

Limitations force you to find the essence of what you want to say, which is one of the most important things to know for an artist.

Don’t wait for success, use Cosmic Ordering.

The sum of his life was a unique melody, hauntingly beautiful and powerful.

What does it matter?" I shrugged. "It's interesting and anything thats interesting is worth learning.

It's interesting how pain can change a person, eh? How it makes a man abandon his pride and forsake himself.

Tradition has made women cowardly.

I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

Non-violence is the article of faith.

I have been extremely proactive in putting myself up for characters that may have been meant to specifically be Caucasian. You bring an interesting angle to the character that isn't written.

History is indeed the witness of the times, the light of truth.

Everyone knows [George W. Bush] has no clue, but no one there has the courage to say it. I mean, good gawd, the man is as he always has been: barely adequate.