I cannot take back one word or action; the past does not change for anyone.
The most terrifying thing in my life is a blank sheet of paper.
[If] you want to learn something about somebody, get into a fistfight. You'll learn more in five minutes than you will in five weeks of conversations. It's basic.
I'm all about real drama, real performance, and real people, so my twist on this is: I'm creating a family, a brotherhood here. I'm creating a very real chemistry and I have this incredible ensemble of actors led by Will Smith, who are basically playing dimensional characters with lives and souls.
Actors are like kids, they need to play a little bit. And that's the nature of their job, they need to shake off some energy and then you as the director get them back on track. When you do loosen up the reins, you get some amazing things, but you have to wring out the performances for every last good drop.
I'm one of those big believers that the movie comes together in the way it's supposed to be and that movies are fated to become what they become.
I'm a veteran, and I come from a family of veterans and people who served in that war. And the stories that I heard were a hell of a lot different than the movies that I was seeing, so I wanted to make a movie about the people that were really there.
My own mind is my own church.
Human society is born in the shadow of religious fear, and in that stage the suppression of heresy is a sacred social duty. Then comes the rise of a priesthood, and the independent thinker is met with punishment in this world and the threat of eternal damnation hereafter. Even today it is from the religious side that the greatest danger to freedom of thought comes. Religion is the last thing man will civilize.
When you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that's when I think life is over.
Taking a song and bringing it to life in a professional recording studio can be an intimidating process at first; I know it certainly was for me. So to be able to offer support and guidance to an emerging singer-songwriter is a huge honor. I look forward to playing a role in such an exciting time of someone's songwriting career.