We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave.

We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.

I was a crazy Pee-wee Herman fan when I was in my early teens. Before he had the kids' TV show, he had a nightclub show in L.A., and I had gotten a VHS copy of it. It was a kids' show, but onstage in a bar, so it's sort of poking fun at the kids' show. And I was obsessed with that, and then 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure.'

The most common criticism I've seen is that I write 'popcorn fantasy:' lightweight action-adventure. Some people call it that as they explain why they love it for exactly that reason. I'm cool with that, either way. I just nod and let it go.

Because I travel so much, my biggest pet peeve is dealing with travelers - the travelers who can't figure things out. My pet peeve is people who just have no idea how to travel.

I've never looked at film-making as a career. I've looked on film-making as an adventure. When you come down the mountain, you get ready to climb again.