My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between.

I stayed in Baghdad every summer until I was 14. My dad's sister is still there but many of my relatives have managed to get out. People forget that there are still people there who are not radicalized in any particular direction trying to live normal lives in a very difficult situation.

When somebody who makes movies for a living - either as an actor writer producer or director - lives to be a certain age you have to admire them. It is an act of courage to make a film - a courage for which you are not prepared in the rest of life. It is very hard and very destructive. But we do it because we love it.

I have the responsibility of over four million people and I am in a position to do good to be able to bring about a new life for my people and I will continue to move in that direction. It's a burden but it needs to be done and you have to have the courage and wisdom to see it through.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

But it's cool working with female directors because I'm a girl so you do relate to them more. You can talk to them about other stuff like clothes and all that.

The Dead was cool It's a great horror story. I went to the casting director of this movie and talked to him then they called my agent and had me come in and read for it and they wanted to use me.

It's cool for me because I'm a director but I'm also a teacher. I'm a lover of cinema and I love working with people who are hungry and have the energy to really do better work.

If you work in casting it's sort of not cool to want to act. A lot of people think that casting directors are frustrated actors but it wasn't true with any of the casting people I knew.

I'm a massive fan of Drake and we walked right past him. He's too cool to be clapping One Direction though.

Ten years ago it was really difficult for a young actress to walk onto a set and disagree with the director and having that be OK and have a conversation about it and everyone be cool with it.

But if the choice is a cool president and 8 or 10 percent unemployment in a declining economy and a country that seems to be going in the wrong direction and structural unemployment for young people at 50 percent I'd rather have a dorky president who fixed those problems.

In a daydream sort of way I think it would be pretty cool to direct a movie. But I have been on movie and TV sets and know it is hard work. I like directing it in my mind. It is easier.

What's weird is that I work with these directors and then I start channeling them. I kind of turn into them a bit - which is cool when you're working with Clint Eastwood.

I've had fans come and knock on my door. I'm usually polite but I'm usually very direct and say 'It's not cool that you come here uninvited.'

You have riches and freedom here but I feel no sense of faith or direction. You have so many computers why don't you use them in the search for love?

There is a real danger that computers will develop intelligence and take over. We urgently need to develop direct connections to the brain so that computers can add to human intelligence rather than be in opposition.

What I try to do is factor in how people use computers what people's problems are and how these technologies can get applied to those problems. Then I try to direct the various product groups to act on this information.

In 1984 I turned to theater in the hopes of finding a more direct form of communication between me and my people.

I work on OpenBSD fulltime as the project leader. I set some directions increase communication between the developers and try to be involved in nearly every aspect of the base system.

But picketing - picketing for or against something and handing out literature - these are conspicuously formal actions. They have to be understood as indirect communication.

The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place so that the actor can create. And in order to do that you have to communicate communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.

Their spirituality was in nature even though Emerson was a preacher on the pulpit he ended up going out into nature for direct face-to-face communication with God if you want to call all of this creation part of God.