If someone's dumb enough to offer me a million dollars to make a picture, I'm certainly not dumb enough to turn it down.
Tragedy makes you grow up.
There was a big drive when I was at art school to make you aware of the economy of meaning - after all, this was still during the tail end of minimalism. Being responsible for everything you put in your picture, and being able to defend it. Keeping everything clear around you so you know what is operating. To open the wound and keep it clean.
What I have learned from my work up to now, is to try to be open, but also protect myself by not letting the good and the evil get too much importance.
In some ways Holy Smoke is about people's journey to the heart.
I'm a much better filmmaker than painter. But studying it did make me visually acute and taught me lessons like being economic: Say something once and you don't have to say it again.
Between 18 and 26 I acted professionally, on the stage and a little bit on television. Acting is okay, but it's quite pressurized. Then I went to England - I wanted to reinvent myself.
The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations - each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony.
If the way of heaven be narrow, it is not long; and if the gate be straight, it opens into endless life.
My personal style has developed from growing up in Oklahoma, middle America, where I was wearing jeans and cowboy boots and where people were not running around in miniskirts.
When I go out, I love steak and caviar.