When you see what the deficit is, then you have to do something about it.

When your passion and drive are bigger than your fears, you just dive.

Self-deprecation is not an answer to keeping one's balance. I think that it's very damaging.

We as artists cannot be politicians. We as artists can only be truth-tellers.

Lloyd Richards is another director who was like that, who was a teacher.

There are all these awards that you've never heard of, and you get nominated, and suddenly you're at these awards shows, so you really don't care if you win. You really don't. You're going there, you're getting dressed up. And then you get to the awards show, and you sit down. You walk the red carpet. Everybody loves you. It's great. You sit down, and all of a sudden your category comes up, and you get nervous. And it's a complicated emotion, because it's not like you absolutely want to win, but then you don't want to lose.

Sometimes people come in as a director, and they just want the result, and they barely want that to tell you the truth. Sometimes directors barely talk to the actors; they are so focused on the cinematic elements of the movie, getting the shot and getting the lighting right or getting the CGI effects right and all of that, and they just trust that you are just going to do what you do.