Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning restless urge to write or paint simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass.

There is a lot of interest in the arts music theatre filmmaking engineering architecture and software design. I think we have now transitioned the modern-day version of the entrepreneur into the creative economy.

I think that narrative fiction filmmaking is the culmination of several art forms: theater art history architecture. Whereas doc filmmaking is more pure cinema like cinema verite is film in its purest form.

The only job that was ever of interest to me other than filmmaking is architecture.

Color in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic.

Gary Ross is amazing. He's just - he always has a billion ideas of what he wants but has a very clear perspective also he just makes it work. He really does. He's trying different things and making everything look amazing.

I basically left Texas with no money. I was making $3.50 working in some mall so I didn't have a lot of cash. I took $1 000 and headed to California. Along the way I stopped in Vegas because I had always wanted to see Caesar's Palace. So I stopped there and won $2 500 on a slot machine! It was amazing.

I'm no actor. And I wasn't like George Lucas or Spielberg making home movies as a teenager either. But I would go back and watch certain movies again and again. By the time I saw 'The Graduate' I was aware of how these amazing stories could be told.

I like making films about old people because they are repositories of amazing stories that they tell well. And they're incredibly good telly.

So now cut to ten years later and I'm making this amazing contract with Pantene. It's incredible.