I do try to keep my show very improvisational. I don't work off a set list; I like to keep it more in the moment. I like to have information about where I'm going, what might be happening in that particular region as well. I like for people to feel like the show is for them.
Even a documentary portrait of a person that tries to be very accurate is shaped by the filmmaker in so many ways.
You're trying to make the language work, and your subconscious is being allowed to make the deeper, more profound connections. It's much better than going at it all frontally. But you can't conjure it in an intellectual way; it has to come out of another engagement, a more intuitive engagement. Revision is where the intellectual, analytical work happens. At least for me.
Even if we try to see people in our lives accurately, it is distorted by our own wants and prejudices and experiences.
I try to write about how we live today, how we use language, technology, our bodies.
I am always trying to do something new and different. The first step is curiosity, questions. You pay attention to what fascinates you. If you can't shake it, there is something there.
Yes, I did try acting when I was in high school and I was terrible at it. So I definitely have had the experience of being bad at artistic endeavor.
As hard as I try to live with some degree of faith in my life, I just can't believe that the full moon can turn dude into a wolf.
My big philosophy is: Try and work with good people, because the process is your life. That's going to be really, really hard. I'm glad I learned the lesson, 'Failure is OK.
I am really looking for a chance to direct. I feel like that's kind of the next frontier for me. I know that it's really hard to do, but I feel like I want to have a chance to try and translate something I've written and try and get a tone across.
Fear is about things that you can't control. The future or the dark, or someone trying to kill you. You don't get scared of yourself because you always know what you're going to do.
Any way I can produce runs and keep runs off the board for the other team, that's what I'm going to try to do.
"I've never see you do something like this before and I'd love to see you try." For a young actor, that's about the most exciting thing that anyone can say to you.
We need to never consider ourselves as having 'arrived'; always trying to learn how we can change to be more like Christ
When you're a writer, you want to try to avoid cliches. Unfortunately, when you're writing about marriage or family, all cliches seem to apply.
I know what I want. I try and convey that at the beginning and set that out, but within those parameters, I'm very happy for them to experiment and try things and give it a go. To me, it's important.
So, as opposed to getting people in to read the script and read scenes with me, what I wanted to do was sit down and chat to these people and just say, "Okay. Do you share my sense of humor? Do you understand what this film is getting at? Do you know the tone that we're trying to get to?" And it was interesting.
Who is the best the sportswriter who wore shorts? I keep trying to envision Grantland Rice or John Lardner in shorts. It never occurred to me to wear shorts. I'd look too silly to wear shorts.
The contortions and games of identity that politicians play on themselves almost everyday is kind of extraordinary. Trump, for instance, speaks like a five-year-old in these vague generalities but then also makes out that he's an expert on everything; he's trying to have his cake and eat it. He's someone who is pretending that he's for the working person but comes from this enormously privileged background.
I try to keep an even keel.
I was trying to get the slightly more cinematic version of my relationship with my mom, which I think was a really common relationship. I adored my mom. I thought she was the best. I loved her very much.
I always try to give my songs as gifts.
Many times in my life when things were not going as I had planned, I would try to take control and fix it. The harder I tried to fix things the harder the situation or the stress from the situation became. As I learned to trust that God had the best solution, my life became much more peaceful and I was able to get through problems much quicker.
I try very hard to handle things equally: ideas, materials, and images.
I was never trying to be funny. Being funny feels to me like an alternate form of confessionality - that is, a way of dismantling the distance between writer and reader, a way of saying, "come in a little closer."
