I started, with three friends, this website called Crowdrise that's sort of the Facebook for personal philanthropy, a place where anybody can have a permanent microsite of their own to stage creative fundraising projects for the charities and causes that they care about. And we did it with serious intent but without any ambition.

I start to get fixated on a story and a character and an idea, and at a certain point, I really want to do it. It's a compulsion to explore a specific thing, as opposed to a compulsion to direct, generally speaking.

Life, like poker has an element of risk. It shouldn't be avoided. It should be faced.

This place [USA] is exploding with young people who are - they're like Nietzsche's hammer - going to break everything and make something better. The creative energy in this country, and what people are coming up with is very hopeful.

I do find myself drawn more to pieces that I feel are wrestling with the way that we're living now, what we're all going through.

If two people are at completely different stages in their spiritual life, that can present a real problem.

You can't control everything that comes to you.