You don't have to patronize your audience, and you can mix art and commerce in a profound way. You can simultaneously play to the sophisticated, 60-year-old theatergoers and to 4-year-olds.

I believe that if you really have a strong idea, you can say, "What do you think? Let's see how my idea plays off yours."

When you break into song, it's not about dialogue, it's not about how you would speak in a naturalistic sense-it's about expressing your inner torment or your inner joy.

We're really having a problem right now in our culture. I haven't seen one movie lately in which the story and visuals have been equally good.

I am creative in my living space - the designer in me helps that out.

Everything amounts to nothing if you don't love someone or something.

I'm not going to spend two years on a film or four years on an opera if I don't feel like I can put my own self into it. That doesn't mean it has to be about myself.