Some people become dullards, but as children we are all creative. It's in the programming, the socialization, that we lose our sense of play.

I use cinematic things in a theatrical way on stage, and in film I use theatrical techniques in a cinematic way.

It's how you tell the story that makes it new. That's what artists do. They let us look at the world from a different perspective. They let us look at birds in a way that makes us never see birds again in the same way. That's why I don't think computers are healthy for kids. They're too literal. You pop a button and a bluebird comes out. You pop another button and you can take the color blue and shove it into the outline of the bluebird.

My God, it transformed me. My life changed.

You just have to throw fear out the window. If there's anything that's going to hold you back, it's fear.

Growing up I had amazing parents who really let me be creative and free. I was the youngest of three by six years, the child who was the outsider and observer. When I went off to Boston to act, I was very young - 10. And my parents didn't fear that. They had the respect to let me make my choices.

There is incredible power in the arts to inspire and influence.