It's humiliating to have to explain your value.

In film producing, there is an inherent tension between the director, the money and the producer, and that's what keeps it flowing and honest and accountable.

I keep trying to train myself to stop saying 'filmmaker' and start saying 'storyteller.' We're telling stories.

My first job, honestly, was as a proofreader. I say that a little disparagingly, but it actually was this sort of incredible thing, where I got this job proofreading for a cable television magazine.

When a crisis occurs, I feel that one of my greatest responsibilities is to set a tone of calm no matter what the problems. Sometimes I have to fake confidence a lot. I also have to fake calm.

The only way to sustain a career is to be as prolific as you can be, and open to opportunities.

Ultimately when I throw myself behind a movie, I have to really believe in that directors vision.

I came to New York, and it was a really cool time. People like Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee were making their first movies, and they were making movies that were personal narratives.

There were Hollywood movies and then there were those aggressively anti-narrative films that they showed at the Collective for Living Cinema.

I always say, what really makes a movie commercial is that it makes its money back.

I think that when you're doing an under-four-million-dollar movie, you just can't throw money at the problems.

Being immortal is grand and all but I don't really remember half of what I did. The human brain was not made to hold this much information. So it doesn't.

Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order.

Savor your existence. Live every moment. Do not waste a breath.

Real friends are our greatest joy and our greatest sorrow. It were almost to be wished that all true and faithful friends should expire on the same day.

You absolutely must have the discipline not to hire until you find the right people.

I grew up in a small town where everyone wanted to be the same or look the same and was afraid to be different.

Your way begins at the other side. Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now.

Tolerate nothing in your life that might diminish your hunger for Gods word. Apply it w vigor & spiritual energy!

For me, faith means that what is right will win out one day. It means that the universe is not aimless but moves by some positive design.

I can only hope that one day soon we'll understand our true economic buying power by investing in our own communities and putting our money into businesses that keep our dollars in our community.