My life is pretty simple and normal.

In the process of developing a character, you do, in fact, start to take him on as a personality. It's part of my job.

I'd bought a lot of really challenging, cutting-edge Joel-Peter Witkin photographs very early on. There were severed heads and amputated feet and hands in them - gruesome stuff. I had them all around the house, and if someone couldn't relate to it in some artistic way and instead just said "Yuck," then there probably wouldn't have been anywhere for us to go.

When I am in Tibet, I am very happy. The Tibetans radiate. They literally send out light. The Dalai Lama's holiness generates love and compassion to every human being. He has committed himself to that. I haven't made that leap yet. I haven't given up self-aspiration. I still love making movies.

The drive for happiness is vital; it's what keeps us in motion.

A lot of making a movie is the comfort level of the people. It's just feeling open. We need to get along. We have to know something about each other.

Anything that's expanding the mind and heart is happiness. But it's not a goal.