I almost forgot what it's like to be proud of my government.

Any questions I had about whether a redneck from Oklahoma could become a Brown Classical Philosophy professor ended when I met Tim [Blake Nelson].

I've been friends with the guys in Radiohead for a lot of years, and I watch the way those guys work with incredible envy. Because whatever the slings and arrows of dealing with the record business, at the end of the day, they have total creative autonomy. They don't need a lot to do what they do, and Thom [Yorke] and Jonny [Greenwood] and the guys have their own joint in their hometown.

Instead of telling the world what you're eating for breakfast, you can use social networking to do something that's meaningful.

People say you can't make movies about your politics or the environment. And, generally speaking, I completely divide those sides of my brain.

I'm a Tulsa Jew and I have a religious upbringing.

I've already spent a lot of my life doing what makes me go. There's a life out there while I'm still young, able to move, able to just sit at peace in the water - I should be spending much more time doing that, rather than continuing to go through this artistic struggle.