“You can't start a movie by having the attitude that the script is finished, because if you think the script is finished, your movie is finished before the first day of shooting.”

“I get that same queasy, nervous, thrilling feeling every time I go to work. That's never worn off since I was 12 years-old with my dad's 8-millimeter movie camera.”

“My dad's been responsible for a lot of my issues.”

“My dad took me to my first movie. It was 'The Greatest Show on Earth' in 1952, a movie of such scale it was actually a traumatic experience.”

“I missed my dad a lot growing up, even though we were together as a family. My dad was really a workaholic. And he was always working.”

“My first reaction every time I delve into an episode of history that I don't know very much about is... my first reaction is anger that my teachers never taught me about it.”

“My dad took me out to see a meteor shower when I was a little kid, and it was scary for me because he woke me up in the middle of the night. My heart was beating; I didn't know what he wanted to do. He wouldn't tell me, and he put me in the car and we went off, and I saw all these people lying on blankets, looking up at the sky.”

“Documentaries are the first line of education, and the second line of education is dramatization, such as 'The Pacific'.”

“In '83, not only was there no such thing as performance motion capture technology, there was no such thing as digital animation. This was the analog era.”

“My filmmaking really began with technology. It began through technology, not through telling stories, because my 8mm movie camera was the way into whatever I decided to do.”

“My problem is that my imagination won't turn off. I wake up so excited I can't eat breakfast. I've never run out of energy. It's not like OPEC oil I don't worry about a premium going on my energy. It's just always been there. I got it from my mom. ”