I've set the bar quite high in terms of storytelling.
I yearn to make a really good, intelligent movie before I die: I don't completely rule out the possibility, but in Hollywood, I'm not bankable.
I'm a ham who wants to be a small part of anything.
I'm from the beatnik generation, where everybody wanted to be a poet or writer or something. And at that time, I was a jazz critic, and I was always thinking, theorizing about what makes great art or what's important in art.
When I was in my teens, I was very, very keen on being the author of a book. What the book was was secondary. I wanted it to be in hardback. I didn't care how thick or thin it was, and I didn't actually care what it was about.
I think of me being a painter eventually.
I have always wanted to outdo myself, be it films or shows.
Building upon the world we created with 'Avatar' has been a rare and incredibly rewarding experience. In writing the new films, I've come to realize that 'Avatar's world, story and characters have become even richer than I anticipated, and it became apparent that two films would not be enough to capture everything I wanted to put on screen.
After college, I knew I wanted to work in comedy, so the first thing I did was go to where the comedy was. I moved from Charlottesville to Chicago, because that's where The Second City and Improv Olympics are. You have to go wherever you need to go to study what interests you.
My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.
Well, since I'm six years old, I've been playing the violin, the piano, I've been singing. It's always been a dream of mine, but I really never had the courage to actually go and do it professionally.
I have always wanted to make a movie, in fact I always wanted to direct someday. But I never thought I would be a producer.
To be a director, you have to think you're the best. Ever since I went to film school, I imagined that you have to think deep down that you want to be Martin Scorsese or you want to be P.T. Anderson. Like, am I as good as those guys? Absolutely not. I feel like I keep learning, and I feel like I keep getting better.
I have big dreams. I want to keep songwriting. Direct films. Be a parent.
Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I'm a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?
Me wanting to be an artist never really faded away. I knew that no matter what else I tried to pursue, my passion was always that.
I didn't know whether I wanted to be an actress or a singer then.
I would really love to work with Paul McCartney. Isn't that arrogant?
I've always wanted to write poems and nothing else.
I don't know if I'm selfless - I still want to make a great record. I want to make a hit record. I want to tour; that's not completely selfless. But the truth is I'm not interested in people coming to my show for me as much as I am for them coming to my show for themselves. That's always been how I am.
I'm afraid that I'm either going to have to write myself something or direct something if I'm going to get somewhere.
Clothing was something I always wanted to do. I've been pulling tear sheets from magazines since I was a little girl.
We're not trying to change the world; just music.
When you first start out, you want to be Fellini, or you want to be Bergman.
Even if it flops, when you're sitting at the drawing table, you dream about seeing your work on the big screen, no matter what.
