I try to research or make up for myself what happened in any character's life. From when he was born until the first page of the script. I fill in the blanks.

If you're trying to please everyone, then you're not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don't think, in the long run.

To be honest, I don't really care about any pope. It's not something I think about much, to be quite honest with you.

With few exceptions, one ought always do what one is afraid of.

I'm optimistic about people and about the planet and about nature. I think it's resilient, like people are.

There's no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there's no excuse for boredom, ever.

I think that people who get to a certain position, and then try to ferociously defend it or build on it, it's kind of a dead-end street. You see people becoming miserable that way.