I don't see myself as beautiful. I was a kid who was freckle-faced, and they used to call me 'hay head.'

I used to feel competitive about a career, but now the only things I'm really passionate about are my family, the environment and Indians.

The meter is ticking [particularly in the face of climate change], so you've got to get to as much as you can as fast as you can. I grew up with 'This Land Is Our Land,' and public land doesn't belong to that administration or this one. We want our kids to grow up with real natural places, not just photos of them.

Lastly get emotionally connected to your story so you can deliver it, you know, if you can't deliver the emotions to your script there's no point to your story. Story is the key.

I think you just keep going. I've been that way, my whole life.

Filmgoers are starved for new ideas, voices and visions.

When people start thinking of you more as a persona, they are less inclined to allow you to move into different areas. Sometimes they're wrong. Sometimes they're just very stereotypical or restricted in their own thinking of what they'll allow you to do.