- Takes fantasies (e.g. what would it be like to date Julia Roberts?) and expands the idea into a film.
- Q: Do yo ever worry about running out of creativity?
A: Need to be able to change your style, not keep doing the same thing over and over. - His job as a leader is to make sure that everyone is making the same film
- Hiring great people: don’t hire people for their reputation, but make sure that the actor will be able to play this part.
- Get the best out of people: get them to fix it temselves. Identify why they aren’t getting it.
- Accept that failure will happen. But it isn’t disastrous.
- Makes optimistic love films because he rejects the idea that violence and dullness is somehow more real than something that happens every day.
- Defining moment of poverty: was exposed to his wealth as a child in the Philippines. Later his family skipped Christmas [gifts, fancy dinner, etc.] one year to give to a family in Africa. Visited Ethiopia and saw people in three huts: likely to die today, likely to die in a week, likely to survive. The nurses, water engineers, etc. were acting emotionlessly, passionless, professionally and it caused him to start his non-profit.
- “I can really only do one thing well: write comedies and deal with comedians on TV. But I will ruthlessly do what I do well to [raise money] to rectify this general injustice.”