“You don’t see the struggle part of a person’s life. You only see the success they have.”

If America is the pursuit of happiness, the best way to pursue happiness is to help other people.

Success is when you try to achieve your inward vision externally and have it come off the way you see it. Then YOU feel successful about it; that’s how success is measured.

Train yourself to let go of the things you fear to lose.

I’ve discovered that most critics themselves are cinematically illiterate. They don’t really know much about movies. They don’t know the history. They don’t know the technology. They don’t know anything. So for them to try to analyze it, they’re lost.

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

It’s not a matter of how well can you make a movie. It’s how well can you make it under the circumstance, because there’s always circumstances. You cannot use that as an excuse.

Someday you’re going to have to learn to separate what seems to be important from what really is important.

The one way the world hasn’t changed: teaching is still the most important job.

But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences – is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.

Education is the single most important job of the human race.

The older you get, the less seriously you take criticism. I’ve gotten to a point now where I ignore it completely. It’s just not relevant to me anymore.

From kindergarten to college, certain teachers engaged my curiosity and motivated me to learn. While I was not the best student, their efforts left a lasting impact.

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.

Any society begins by realizing that together, by helping each other, you can survive better than if you fight each other and compete with each other.

Good luck has its storms.

I am simply trying to struggle through life trying to do God’s bidding.

Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.

All thoughts start from emotions.

When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.

Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.

Decisions can be a major challenge for all of us.

Money can’t buy you life.

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.

The real joy in life comes from finding your true purpose and aligning it with what you do every single day.