With no other choices open to us, we'd turned our gaze seaward. The oceans were our America: they reached farther than any prairie, untamed as on the first day of creation. Nobody owned them.

That's the strange thing about a good story. No pleasure if you can't share it.

They were probably scared of him and so they did what boys do around any object of fear: they went up close, pointed a finger, gave it a nickname, and masked their terror with roaring laughter.

They all lived so steeped in fear that the losses they had yet to suffer had already consumed them.

There was plenty for the eye to feast on, but nothing for the soul. He had a hunger for something that no sky could satisfy. Somewhere on the planet there had to be a different kind of light.

Nature was neither fair nor unfair. Those terms belonged to the world of men.

Your roots aren't to be found in your childhood so much as in your child. It's he who provides your link to the world, and home is wherever he is.

Loss was a night that never ended.

We were familiar with the line that separates grief from madness, and we know that sometimes the only way to stay on the right side of it is to scream.

Her grief was a burden so heavy, he came close to collapsing under it, and yet he couldn't lay it down.

Is there anything more heartbreaking than drowning in sight of land? Is there a single one of us who hasn't at least once felt haunted by the fear of slipping away within sight of a safe haven?

Even in the best of worlds the soul needs refurbishing from time to time.

Academia is the death of cinema. It is the very opposite of passion. Film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates.

The office’ is a cemetery of dreams.

I think if you can dance and be free and not embarrassed, you can rule the world.

In fashion, only sexy won’t go out of fashion.

I would love to produce a film.

No matter what, I want to experience a sense of peace while talking. As I look out into the audience, Ill remember to breathe and notice that at my core there is peace.

If a work of art is to explore new environments, it is not to be regarded as a blueprint but rather as a form of action-painting.

I like to say, jazz music is kind of like my musical equivalent of comfort food. You know, it's always where I go back to when I just want to feel sort of grounded.

Brooklyn, it's a great town, a great city. It's New York.