There is something I call social intelligence. You can do a lot in life on your own and you can do all kinds of stuff, but if you're really bad with people, if you're really naive or aggressive and push people away, if you don't know the political environment you're in, it invalidates all the things you know. You're not going to get anywhere.

I find the training of the mind that Zen puts people through is by far to me, the most interesting, one of the most interesting disciplines.

If you're in your early twenties, don't put so much importance on the money, on the raise. Getting an extra thousand dollars a year is okay, but the real thing is the responsibility and the power and the experience that you're learning.

I'm afraid I'm just too intense to have soft ideas, you know, about what to read when you're trying to pass the time.

In some ways, the documentary form is a kind of trap and so is societal norms.

If you're consumed only with the big dream, you're going to die because you won't be able to feed yourself or you're going to be losing your job, so you'll just be sitting in your room dreaming, but if you're only holding onto the crap jobs that keep you just above of the water you're going to be unhappy. You're going to be burnt out, washed out.

I like lecturing and going around the world and giving talks and I like doing consulting and helping people.