When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.
My thing is every generation of Americans has to answer what we call the 'Superman Question.' Superman comes, lands in America. He's illegal. He's one of these kids. He's wrapped up in a red bullfighter's cape. And you've got to decide what we're gonna do with Superman.
You could afford your house without the government if it weren't for the government.
If you look at art history, at Goya or Gainsborough, it's always about acknowledging the people of your time who have influence.
You get moments all the time that kind of make you pinch yourself, some of them make you quite emotional. Winning a BRIT was a big moment because we were just so excited to be at the awards in the first place. Selling out Madison Square Garden was pretty amazing too. Then we woke to the news that our UK tour was sold out. It was crazy.
Music can be useful during training to help get you psyched, and I still listen to music on easy climbs or in the gym. But during cutting-edge solos or really hard climbs, I unplug. There shouldn't be a need for extra motivation on big days, be it music or anything else. It should come from within.
Put every light you have on a dimmer. Because after a certain age, we can play with the lighting and set it on how you look best on it. It's cheaper than plastic surgery.
Denzel's all about the work. He's all about the acting. He's an actor. He'll tell you himself, 'I'm not a movie star, celebrity, something else. I'm an actor.' He steps on a set, that's what he is, and that's what he gives you. He gives his heart.
Validation is easy - you run your site through a validator, and it's either valid or it isn't. The rest of the stuff, such as whether my logo or the biggest headline should be the h1 in my HTML, isn't so easy and is subject to interpretation.
I'm not somebody who plans. There were times I planned a lot in my life, and it never turns out how you plan it. So I think it's important not to. I'm a very spontaneous person.
Video game fans are like nothing else. You can do so many movies or so many TV things, but video games is where there is just everyone.
When I was 8 or 9, I started using bulletin board systems, which was the precursor to the Internet, where you'd dial into... a shared system and shared computers. I've had an email address since the late '80s, when I was 8 or 9 years old, and then I got on the Internet in '93 when it was first starting out.
If you choose a market that already exists, say, networking equipment, you have to compete with an established company like Cisco. Even if your product is marginally better, Cisco can fudge it and outsell you.
If you're writing an opinion piece, it's your job to write your opinion. If, on the other hand, you wrote a novel, as Virginia Woolf tells us, it would be inappropriate if you let your novel be influenced by your political opinions.
The guitar can go at a scream. It can yell at you.
Kids delight in 'magical thinking', whether in the form of the Tooth Fairy or the saints: whether you see these as comforting lies or eternal verities, they are part of how we help kids make sense of the world.
When you have a global mush, people lose their identity, they become pseudonyms, they have no investment and no consequence in what they do.
So many writers live their whole lives in rooms. You can be too civilised in the environment you have around you, too oriented towards speaking engagements and literary festivals and dinner parties. That has no interest for me these days. You get to a point where you don't care anymore. At that point, you can start to write.
I have my 'Whole New You' cookbook I'm currently working on.
You can't make a character do something they wouldn't do.
I think a father is important for everyone. If you don't have, then maybe not so much. In the world today, it's possible that you grow up with only one parent in the family.
My parents are left-wing, and I would describe myself as that. But also, you know what? I wouldn't describe myself as that. Because I don't have to. Because I'm not a political party. Most people are a little bit of each, and we change our mind on various issues.
There are times when you work with directors on set, and things are a bit rudderless, and those can be good directors.
I think it's a rite of passage that the minute you land in Japan, you have to go to a karaoke bar.
I collect hats. That's what you do when you're bald.
I'm kind of a complainer, but not about getting old. I complain about, you know, something that can be fixed.
If you eat junk, you look like junk. People say, 'It's not my fault, it's my glands.' It's not; it's greed!
I think it is only natural that people have anxiety about the economy because the economy is real. It is their job, their ability to service their mortgage and look after their family. And in the final analysis, nothing is more important than your capacity as a breadwinner or an earner to provide for those that rely on you.
I remember my very first audition for a film. I was in Seattle. They were taping the session, and I just went crazy. The director finally said, 'Zoe, what are you doing? The camera's right here. Just talk to me.' And it took that director saying that to me to change everything.
For a long time, I thought it was all down to dedication, hard work, and visualising doing well - that worked for a bit, but then it stopped. I've realised you have to be more practical and mature to make things actually happen.
Having to wake up at seven and go take the subway every morning, having to get over there with all these commuters and see every possible face of humanity and realizing that you're just the same as these other people is actually an amazingly positive thing.
If you do television, and it's great, it's the best job there is. Every week it's another opportunity to really make that work and figure out how to make it work better. I love that it's like theater too, and the audience, and it's so short, like twenty minutes... It's like a Haiku or something.
I have said it often and I will say it again: I believe you learn to read when you are young, then read to learn for the rest of your life.
Sheets of sound. Well, that was when I got tired of certain modulations. Like when you want to get back to C, and you've got to go to D and then G and then C. I was fooling around with the piano, and I figured out some other way to do it.
I've been in this business for 40 years - you do a show, and you don't know what's going to come of it.
If you think about it, critics are an unnecessary life-form on the planet Earth, and here's why: because it's a job without credentials. You don't have to go to school.
