The two things in the world we all share in this world are laughter and pain. We've all got problems. The levels of those problems vary, but we've all got problems. When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that's a gift - to you and your audience.
It lies in human nature that where you experience your first laughs, you also remember the age kindly.
When new cooks come to work for me, they obviously make mistakes at the beginning or there's some messiness to the presentation. What I always say to them is: 'If you were cooking this for your mother or your girlfriend, would you make those mistakes?'
Well, when you're trying to create things that are new, you have to be prepared to be on the edge of risk.
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
This film is what it is. It's a campy thriller horror movie where you go and have fun. With these types of films, you can't take it too seriously. They are what they are.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
I think when you're just counting on your voice, you actually need double the energy. I find myself acting out the scenes and being very physical while I'm recording because I think you can tell when someone is just sitting on a stool.
It's not whether you win or lose, it's how many people remember you when you die.
That's the power of film. If it's good, it can somehow make you feel connected to even the farthest thing from your own experience.
One of my psychoses is that I feel like I can do anything. Actually, I believe anybody can do and make anything, even things that don't exist. The making isn't the hard part; it's having faith. If you do only reasonable things, you'll never start your own business.
Stay away from milk. It is nature's perfect food - but only if you are a calf.
When you write an album and you're writing about relationships, the stuff that I've been through in my relationships, 99 percent of it is really good, but it's that one percent that always inspires you to write a song.
Now my dad is with me, traveling with me and a big part of this whole thing is I like to mix it up a little bit, you know. Who gets to take their father on a private jet across the country and stay in first class hotels? So we're enjoying it, but I'd stop if it's not possible.
The stream in my hometown Calgary is the oil and gas industry - that's the talk you hear on the street.
My weaknesses... I wish I could come up with something. I'd probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they're the same thing.
What it all boils down to for me is having the enthusiasm to do something for enjoyment and being stimulated by what's around you. That's what photography does for me.
By presenting a faithful and honest record of my experience as a mother, I hope to show both my readers and my children how truth can redeem even what you fear might be the gravest of sins.
TV, it's a director's medium, and they wanna make it look interesting. To be rehearsing mostly for the sake of where you're standing so they can do the lighting, that's what I don't like.
When you're collaborating with somebody, there has to be a spirit of cooperation. There are a lot of times when you just can't persuade someone to write a certain type of song, either musically or lyrically.
Usually people like to categorise artists. With my films, I categorise people: if I know which one of my movies you like, I can tell which kind of a person you are.
To me the recognition of the audience is part of the filmmaking process. When you make a movie, it's for them.
If you raise taxes on something, you discourage that activity.
There was so much that you could do, instead of looking for things that you couldn't do.
You can sway an audience if you win the women over. The gentlemen will follow 'cause they can be so foolish like that at times, they are easily led.
You see all these movies of white men saving the world all the time.
When you start using test audiences, it becomes more scientific than it is about the work itself, and that's boring.
You shouldn't get to live in society and give nothing back. People complain about their taxes, yet they do nothing for the community. That makes me furious.
You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you're really interested in it.
I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give.
If you can't protect yourself with talk, you won't be alive to protect yourself with guns.
I never let politics get personal. You can have the most intense, heated debate on issues, and so long as you keep it on issues, you can go out and have coffee afterwards and you're good friends.
Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.
Salary stories are intrusive. Do you ask your neighbour what they earn for their job?
Philadelphians are a gritty, tough people who will help you when you're down.
If you watched 'Lost,' sometimes the episodes were crazy good, and sometimes you're like, 'That one was just sorta there.'
