The portal into people's hearts is being interested in them.

Every journey that is successful has culs-de-sac and speed bumps. I carry a wisdom gene through my life through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

With a purposeful story, you can change a "wanna be" to a "gonna be" to a "be".

Truth is a point of view, but authenticity can't be faked.

Language is a more recent technology. Your body language, your eyes, your energy will come through to your audience before you even start speaking.

Stories aren't the icing on the cake; they are the cake!

In any situation that calls for you to persuade, convince or manage someone or a group of people to do something, the ability to tell a purposeful story will be your secret sauce.

Good storytelling is harder than it sounds, but the easy part is that everyone has the ability to do it. ...Tap into it.

Nothing replaces being in the same room, face to face, breathing the same air and reading and feeling each other's micro-expressions.

People love to be swept off their feet, to go into an environment where they've never been, to experience things they only dream about. And filmmaking offers that potential.

When you want to move somebody, you have to say to yourself: 'I'm in the emotional transportation business. I gotta move them, emotionally.

Nature cares nothing for logic, our human logic: she has her own, which we do not recognize and do not acknowledge until we are crushed under its wheel.

Complaining is a complete waste of one's energy. Those who complain the most accomplish the least.

It never rains but it pours.

I did a concert... in September with the Berlin Philharmonic... They're great musicians, and there's always something to learn from them.

There's plenty of anger among Muslims in the world right now. How can you have more?

Maybe you don't need beauty sleep, but some of us aren't so lucky.

Ingratitude to man is ingratitude to God.

I use poetry to help me work through what I don’t understand, but I show up to each new poem with a backpack full of everywhere else that I’ve been.

When realistic images or patterns are seen in an abstract painting, they are often parallels brought about by processes in painting which echo processes in nature.

Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.