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.

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.

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.

We are contaminated with the idea of "winning" and defeating others. Indoctrinated by parents, schools, and our ubiquitous media, hammered with a lie: The only way to be truly triumphant is if we are dominant before supposed "competitors" rather than beautiful before ourselves.

As lovely as people are to me about my performance, I'm still a huge critic. I like very little of what I ever do.

Most infants are geniuses. They're indomitable, fearless, and completely in harmony with a cosmic proclivity for growth. They're heroes because they walk directly through adversity with love and ardent resolve.

It's all just venom to the soul and symptomatic of a larger issue: the idea of the shortcut. The result without the fight. The fight is the thing. The work.