The problem with human beings is that they can't sit alone in a room for more than an hour.

Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter

It's funny how it reads like a Kubrick-inspired moment, a filmmaker controlling one's mise en scène. What it truly is is a documentary moment.

The key to power, then, is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.

There's a real tension between it being a collaborative art process, which is almost like performance art of yourself, and, as we talk about the movie, it's kind of a mix between melodrama and cinéma vérité. This involves ideas about playing the role of yourself and the movie of your life and all these other things.

The pyramid would start at the bottom: you don't know who you are or what you're intended to do in life. And so, the X factor - the ingredient that will make you powerful, that will make you successful is your energy and drive and your tenacity. If you've got that, there's nothing in the world that's going to stop you.

The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.