New Zealanders have conventions and pleasantries, but we are direct. We are encouraged to be transparent with our behavior and not to employ passive aggression.

If you do your work, eventually there will be a spark. A fire. A blaze.

People never regret when they come out of a movie and they've been crying. I think people need it. That's why people have the theater and live music, which is dwindling as well. I think people like to go see things and have an emotional, transcendent, universal human experience, but so often we're like, "Let's go watch Green Lantern," which we all know is just not going to do anything for our souls.

The feeling of New Orleans is so pervasive. It's such a strange and decadent and enchanted embrace that that city has. There's a dark magic present. It's no wonder that it's been the hot bed for so much vampiric folklore. The city has got an ancient quality. It's one of the oldest cities in North America.

If you devote yourself entirely to a pursuit, there is no way you cannot find beauty and fulfillment.

Whatever you want is as elusive as you make it.

I love to watch my daughter. At twenty-two months, that little soul is developing at a rate I will never understand. She's kind of taught me that growth and expansion are a person's natural state and inclination.