I lived in Indonesia for four years and I understand trance and magic and where it comes from.

A performance can have amazing visuals and special effects, but it has to tell a good story, even if that story isn't original.

One of the reasons I love to jump back and forth between mediums is that film does allow me to be more literal. I can go to the real place. I can go to the Coliseum, and I don't have to fake it.

When I was growing up, there were a lot more arts in the public schools. Politically, America has screwed up on that.

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.

I really do believe that if you don't challenge yourself and risk failing, that it's not interesting.

Going to the Far East was my first eye-opener to a world vastly different from my own. Then when I was 16 I lived in Paris for a year and studied mime. At 21 I went to Indonesia. I had planned to go for three months, but I stayed four years. I just got lost in the culture.