“You need peers; you need people who are at the same level you are. You never know in life when you’re going to need help, and you never know who you’re going to need it from.”

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.

Part of the reason my friends and I became successful is that we were always helping each other.

A movie is never finished, only abandoned.

My life is making movies. I like storytelling, and I’ve got a lot of stories that are stored up in my head that I hope to get out before my time is up.

It’s okay to lose; just don’t lose the lesson.

There is no why. We are. Life is beyond reason.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

Don’t avoid the cliches – they are cliches because they work!

It’s hard work making movies. It’s like being a doctor: you work long hours, very hard hours, and it’s emotional, tense work. If you don’t really love it, then it ain’t worth it.

I am mad, I am going under, I must follow the advice of a friend, and pay no heed to myself.

Understanding is the soil in which grow all the fruits of friendship.

He was my best friend. I would always love him, and it would never, ever be enough.

I wrote ‘Oath’ for Cher Lloyd because there were really no best-friend anthems out there. Not only did she love it, she wanted me to rap on it, too!

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.

Love makes money-grabbing seem contemptible; love makes class prejudice impossible; love makes selfish ambition a thing to be despised; love converts enemies into friends.

You have to be a friend to yourself. You know, ’cause if you’re not a friend to yourself, you’re an enemy to yourself and if someone’s a friend of everybody they are an enemy to themselves.

When I was about 15. I was just singing around, and people kept telling me I needed to try it. A friend got me to sing in front of Troy Taylor, and he took to me right there.