Fit: Movement keeps ideas moving forward so I aim to move my body for at least 30 minutes each day.

Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for.

What determines your success isn’t “What do you want to enjoy?” The question is, “What pain do you want to sustain?”

People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist lifestyle are ultimately the ones who live it and make it.

happiness requires struggle. The positive is the side effect of handling the negative. You can only avoid negative experiences for so long before they come roaring back to life.

The quality of your life is not determined by the quality of your positive experiences but the quality of your negative experiences. And to get good at dealing with negative experiences is to get good at dealing with life.

99% of your thoughts are useless.

You have the ability to decide what you think. Or, you can choose NOT to think.

“How do I train myself to stop thinking useless thoughts?” Awareness. That’s where it starts. Every time you start drifting off, become aware of it. Just observe your brain. Step outside yourself and just observe the crazy shit you’re thinking about.

Set priorities on Sunday. I outline my weekly priorities and what I want to have accomplished by the following Sunday.

Map out work, play, fit, and push. Work: For each day, I outline my “Top 3,” meaning the three most important things I will have accomplished by the end of the day.

Play: Play enables me to self-express, reflect, and give my ideas space, which shows up positively in my work.

Push: Since learning and growth is important to me, I do something that scares me (almost) every day. This may be asking someone whom I deeply respect for an interview or writing about a topic that makes me feel vulnerable.

Batch your days. Batching actions into specific days and creating time for creativity.

CREATE on Monday/Wednesday/Friday: I create holes in my schedule for thinking and creating. On these days, I pay attention to my body and take breaks as needed.

CALLS and MEETINGS on Tuesday/Thursday: When possible, I avoid phone calls and meetings because I find them typically unproductive and often easy to solve via email.

SPONTANEOUS Saturday: With so much structure, I make room for spontaneity. On Saturday, I let go and go where the day takes me. Balancing structure with a day of free-spiritedness makes me feel whole.

INTENTIONAL Sunday: Plan for the week ahead.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.

When I'm trying to find my way into a character, the voice and physicality are the first two things I do.

I dropped out of college and ended up making this feature film I wrote when I was 19 with some friends. It was terrible.

I'm a peaceful person once work ethic is established.

I'll probably be still playing a school girl when I'm 60.

Some books I've kept because the binding is beautiful - I'm unlikely ever to read my grandmother's copy of 'The Life of Lord Nelson.' I'm addicted to secondhand bookshops.

Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered.

One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.

Sometimes, I write '60s or '80s style pop songs.

It took me years to learn that sentences in fiction must do much more than stand around and look pretty.

I have these habits. I'm not a crazy artist. Or am I?

Dialogue in fiction is what characters do to one another.

I always loved watching movies because I loved what certain moments inside of films did to me.

Well, for starters, we have to do more to create demand for new technologies that can reduce our dependence on foreign oil and environmental degradation.

The poor wish to be rich, the rich wish to be happy, the single wish to be married, and the married wish to be dead.

Initially, it was my dream to get into RADA. Then I got in. So it became my dream to show them I wasn't half bad at acting.

Without the spiritual world the material world is a disheartening enigma.

All writing and publishing is very difficult, regardless of genre. There are going to be obstacles no matter what.

I loved practical jokes. I loved being goofy on the playground, and I loved doing silly cartoons, but I was not this subversive little delinquent. I am an Eagle Scout, after all.

They're intimidating the networks and levying these fines, so the networks are not sure of what they can or can't do.

There are certain actors who are very good at improvising, like Dustin Hoffman and Glenda Jackson.

I love all Helmut Lang. I love Alexander Wang and Alice+Olivia. And there's this brand called Hengst that makes a killer jumpsuit. I'm a sucker for those.

When you hear someone talking in a restaurant or overhear someone talking on the street, there are very different patterns of conversation than you would hear in a conventional movie.

The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart. And being thoughtful and being generous. Everything else is crap. I promise you. It's just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don't buy it. Be smart. Be thoughtful and be generous.