With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life.

Everyone has seen photographs of Mexicans wearing those big sombreros. When you come to Mexico, the astonishing thing is, nobody wears these hats at all.

When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.

There were movies that always made me want to be a director. You see brilliant scenes and the way the emotions were handled. I thought, I'd really like to do that.

Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied.

The music of the most popular operas is so highly esteemed, it can stand endless revivals.

It's not enough to hit the notes. There is no point in the singers just standing there and sounding wonderful if they're not connecting with the characters they are portraying.

On stage, the audience watches from a fixed viewpoint and the director cannot retake something he doesn't like. It has to work straight through.

Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama.

Failure is allowing your fears to make the best of you.

The lesson of history is that you do not get a sustained economic recovery as long as the financial system is in crisis.

It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it

If you seek Hamilton's monument, look around. You are living in it. We honor Jefferson, but live in Hamilton's country, a mighty industrial nation with a strong central government.

All love is unrequited. All of it.

I'm just a simple man standing alone with my old brushes, asking God for inspiration.

When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this county of ours and eternal optimism for its future.

Bill Hicks wasn't just a comic, he was a crusader against humanity's relentless capacity to underachieve

The Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe-the body-is the soul.