We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.
Something is wrong here, and it's more than easy access to guns or violence on TV. It's about lack of love and attachment to loving people early in life.
Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.
People always said, "I can't believe you made a movie that had no script. " Yeah, but here's the thing, if you've got actors who are used to that, and that's what they like to do, they're all good improvisers and they're all people that feel comfortable doing that, then you know, it's not that big of a deal. It's what you do.
I like writing because you can make things happen and turn out the way they never do in real life.
With someone like Barack Obama, I think the whole America, the whole world will coalesce. Every election is about change, and change takes a long time because there are big issues that can't be changed overnight. But the one thing that will change dramatically is how we're viewed around the world. Once Obama is in there, the world will view Americans in an entirely different light. And that, to me, is a good thing.
If you have tapped into something that is real for you, chances are you are going to tap into something that is real for someone else.
Do you love me because I'm beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?
Gustave Flaubert said, "Emma Bovary, c'est moi. " It is not possible to write something you are not, but to have a new form, with a different hair color and a new body. . . I do very little of that. That's why I keep bringing up the same people. I haven't given myself a hard time about it. But I can't make six new characters instead of one.
Louisiana taught me another level of humility. Everyone is so content, not socially content but spiritually. Everyone is happy with who they are and loves their city regardless of what has happened here with Katrina and all the different stories. They have a sense of pride and it really rubbed off on me.
The best way to put more money in people's wallets is to leave it there in the first place.