You program music with an image and then people are desensitized.

I've never been a puppeteer, I conceive and I write and I design and I direct. And not just puppets. I direct actors, I direct dancers, I direct singers, I direct films. I also direct puppeteers. I'm really a theatre maker, but there's not a word for that.

Because my parents had given me tremendous respect, trust, and freedom as a child, I knew how to take responsibility for myself. If you're constantly being told "No, don't do that" or "We don't trust you," you can't develop that responsibility.

I love directing Shakespeare on film. It's fantastic that the actors would do exactly the same thing and be true to their part.

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."

In a way, artists are shamans, facilitators who take what's there, channel it through themselves, then put it out there for people to appreciate.

We have often been attracted to the story of the other, the outcast. And he and I just loved working together, so it just kept happening, and our relationship is completely bound up with our work. We enjoy each other's art.