For me, real life is hard work. Making movies is like a vacation for my soul.

There is art and beauty and power in the primal images of fantasy.

Making a film is like raising a child. You cannot raise a child to be liked by everyone. You raise a child to excel, and you teach the child to be true to his own nature. There will be people who'll dislike your child because he or she is who they are, and there will be people who'll love your child immensely for the very same reason.

I think love is the greatest force in the universe. It's shapeless like water. It only takes the shape of things it becomes.

I think when we wake up in the morning, we can choose between fear and love. Every morning. And every morning, if you choose one, that doesn't define you until the end... The way you end your story is important. It's important that we choose love over fear, because love is the answer.

When I was a kid, monsters made me feel that I could fit somewhere, even if it was... an imaginary place where the grotesque and the abnormal were celebrated and accepted.

Monsters are the patron saints of imperfection.

There is beauty and humility in imperfection.

I'm a pyro. I love exploding things.

My grandpa told me, 'Learn to love anxiety, because it never goes away in moviemaking.'

In California, where you're allowed to drive at 16, you get so much freedom with that. It's a freedom to get outside of your parents' house and to do bad things.

It's great because all of my friends from elementary school are still my closest friends.

Friends would ask, 'Have you seen 'The Godfather?' and I'd be like, 'No.'

I love my family's films.

In Italy, there are a lot of Coppolas - it's like being called Jones. No one really notices.

Now that I'm older, I have a much better appreciation of nature, and I love being alone.

Most movies use older actors, but I thought, if I could just put kids on camera and get them to be themselves, what could be easier?

It was kind of intimidating to make a feature without that much experience.

I got my GED my senior year and ended up taking community college classes before I transferred to Bard.

I remember people - not my family - always asking, 'Oh, so are you going to make movies when you're older?' I felt pressured, and that always kind of deterred me.

I've been going to the same person for haircuts since I was thirteen.

Once I found these sticker things for your nails - Sally Hansen - those were really fun to do. They're really fun to do when you're bored, and it's better than painting your nails because you don't mess up. It looks really good, very professional. I tried a zebra one that was really pretty, but I always get a little bored of it.

I feel like I can communicate much better using images than words.

I'm so drawn to photography because you can convey a complex story in a single frame.