Well, unbeknownst to everybody, I did a movie when I was 19.

I don't mind snakes. Growing up in South Africa there were a couple a snakes around... and I'm not talking just about the government!

One of the things I try to be very careful of is not taking a movie when I know I have no inspiration left.

I've done that quite often, but I've got to be quite honest... as much as you would want to only do one at a time, sometimes projects overlap and there's nothing you can do. Sometimes you to have begin writing a new project just as you're finishing off another.

Unless the guitar works as a color, then I don't use it, so I haven't been playing guitar too much lately.

I love being in a band. I love that collaborative spirit, although some would suggest that I don't get involved in the collaborative spirit, but it's not true.

When I finished a song that I thought was good, I thought, I don't know where that came from, so I have no idea if I can do that again. I'm talking like, a hundred and fifty songs down the line. I still feel that.

I really love writing themes and melody.

You know, usually with movies there are periods, dark areas, where I might not be getting what I wanted out of a theme. I'll have to go over and over it again.

Getting back to the point, a guy like Jerry, he deals with the business, and he doesn't see it as being evil or ugly, it's what you have to do, and I mean I know there's some really ugly parts to it and parts which drive me nuts, but not in the same way as music business.

Yes was a band where we could explore some of those ideas, but I knew that if I wanted to get into orchestral music and make a living at it, movies seemed to be a perfect spot.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on Enemy of the State. Tony Scott is an important director, and has an amazing ability to express himself, and he doesn't do it in musical terms , he does it in emotional terms. I got along really well with him.

I'll always do the guitar parts since it's my main instrument.

All of the directors I've worked with I've gotten along with very well.

I will be doing a film called Whispers, for Disney. It's about elephants, and doesn't have any people in it. It will be a live action film - I don't know how much I can say about it, since I still don't know too much about it.

Well, unbeknownst to everybody, I did a movie when I was 19.

Yes well I've done three movies with Samuel L. Jackson, so I've met him a couple of times already. Well, I see him everyday, but its only on the screen.

While I'm quite happy and love doing the atmospheric and quirky stuff, the melodic stuff, I've done quite a lot of. It's also another reason why I try not to do two or three at the same time.

Writing a simple melody can take weeks to get it right where I want it, but I do quite enjoy it.

It's an important thing to have a relationship with the director, and have it be a positive one.

I grew up in such a musical family, and my dad was the first chair in the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, and my mom was a piano teacher and a painter, so it was kind of a creative environment, and it was kind of in my DNA.

I just loved classical music, but I also loved playing rock guitar, and I loved playing piano, so it was a natural thing that those things would merge at some point.

I never actually had a guitar lesson. I taught myself the guitar from piano exercise books, which led me to have a pretty good technique on the guitar and allowed me to find different ways to do things.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on Enemy of the State. Tony Scott is an important director, and has an amazing ability to express himself, and he doesn't do it in musical terms, he does it in emotional terms. I got along really well with him.

In my day, when I was a young kid, army duty was compulsory in South Africa or you go to jail. I had the choice, so I spent a year in the entertainment unit, and outside of doing shows - and I used to write for, arrange for the big band - outside of doing that, I actually had a rock band in the army.

The process of composing the film score for each movie is completely different. They all have their own personality and their own completely different life, but there's never been a formula. Each time, it's a new thing.

When you do a record like 'Talk,' and you're happy with it, and it reaches your ambitions and then doesn't sell as well as you wanted, it kind of takes the wind out of your sails a little.

You can't judge an album by a single song; it's like judging a book by only reading a single chapter.

Unless the guitar works as a color then I dont use it so I havent been playing guitar too much lately.

I've been able to get an excitement back in the water.

Elections are not a beauty contest. It is all about tolerance.

The ribosome is a machine that gets instructions from the genetic code and operates chemically in order to produce the product.

I think life is self-examination. Certainly the voyage that one takes.

What are the symbols of American strength, wealth, power and modernity? Certainly not jazz and rock and roll, not chewing-gum or hamburgers, Broadway or Hollywood. It's their skyscrapers. Their Pentagon. Their science. Their technology.

Social media has allowed fans and celebrities to really engage and have an organic interaction with each other. Ever since I've had the opportunity to use social media, all the way back to the days of chat rooms, I found I was able to really understand what the fans wanted, communicate with them, and share my lifestyle.

The don't-ask-don't-tell approach to plot and character that 'The Hurt Locker' relies on to set itself in motion doesn't offend me politically. It offends me as a storyteller.

It's very difficult being an actor and being away for a lot of time, but my sons haven't complained too much too often.

I am not a jazz singer. I wouldn't place myself on that footing. I wouldn't even enter that arena.

Speaking as a black person, welfare is the worst thing that's ever happened to us.

There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better.

The supreme nobility of a Roman emperor does not consist in being a master of slaves but in being a lord of free men who loves freedom even in those who serve him.

The things that block a writer are not the lack of words, but the same things that block all people - the difficulties of life.

In Paris, choosing a dress is a monumental decision. In Milan, it’s a kick.

Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.

Any show I'm working on, I want the stories to always be about something, and to have the potential to be emotional. That's the kind of story that I like.

There are certain comforts of living here in Dubai, the comforts of so many mosques and so much good food... It's just that much more secure. And may God keep it safe.

I'm not interested in using my father's death as some touch point for why I've become an actor - it's grossly opportunistic.

I love challenging films, really. I'd prefer to do some gritty, challenging roles. That would be awesome and really fun.

I have written a memoir here and there, and that takes its own form of selfishness and courage. However, generally speaking, I have no interest in writing about my own life or intruding in the privacy of those around me.