# Snapshots

I fought back in my own little ways, like dressing as the macabre Angel of Death for “Bible Character Day.”

There is also an unhealthy obsession with "natural talent," making it somehow more meaningful than hard work, and this has never sat well with me.

There is nothing more motivating than just observing human beings in the wild.

I think all artists are inherently invisible problem solvers. We see an empty space in the world and want to fill it with our ideas, our images, and our stories.

I have always sought to understand as many points of view as possible. I want to make these worlds accessible through empathy. To make them entertaining by surprising audiences and subverting expectations.

The only way I've found happiness in this crazy business is to build a solid friend circle of people who genuinely want to see me succeed and vice versa.

There was a time when I was on the path to become a clinical neuropsychologist. But while I love learning about the brain and human psychology, I'm a storyteller at heart and, ultimately, had to follow my passion.

What I’ve come to realize over the years is that you have to stop looking outside yourself for validation.

"Much of my writing has centered on historical dramas, including a short film set in 1960s Appalachia and another in 1970s New York."

In writing, I am every character's voice—even the location's.

I cherish the couple of hours in a theater when the phones are silenced, the lights are dimmed, and you’re completely immersed into another person’s world.

I don't believe in points of no return, I want to be an example that it's never too late to take action and go after what you want.

It's okay if your creative flavor isn't for everyone, as long as you're telling your own truth—there is an audience that will respond to a genuine, well-told story.

Your art is whatever you make or do in order to process the world and the incomprehensible experience of being alive in it. That's why it feels like work and also why it feels necessary.

Being an artist in the U.S. means never having to say you’re sorry but always feeling guilty anyway.