I drove through the stockyards of Texas on a motorcycle. It doesn't let you ESCAPE what surrounds you and what it SMELLS like and feels like - and what HIT me was the realization that something that was alive and had feelings will suffer before a piece of it is placed on our plates.

I came to the realization that I'm a child of God, and that's my IDENTITY. If this all goes tomorrow, I don't have the proverbial rug under me that can be PULLED out. I'm TAKEN CARE of, and there's someone who loves me.

I USED to think interacting with people in the audience, touching people in the crowd, was a total ego-based thing. I never realized how FULFILLING it would be. It's more about being on the receiving end - it's people GIVING. That's a powerful REALIZATION.

Given the weight of an OSCAR statuette, one made out of solid GOLD WOULD be worth $219,000. That twinkle in a winner's eye would be more than just a REALIZATION that he or she is a decent actor; it would be the joy of holding a chunk of metal worth a new Lamborghini.

Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social SPECIES, you TEND to KEEP an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, GOOD for us.

I am a firm believe in the power of DREAMS, because the world is basically one giant realization of people's COLLECTIVE dreams COME true. We need to dream to aspire to do something that keeps us striving. But those dreams and ideas and wants mean nothing without execution, which doesn't usually happen without a PLAN.

The art of pictorial creation is so complicated - it is so astronomical in its possibilities of relation and combination that it would take an ACT of super-human CONCENTRATION to EXPLAIN the final REALIZATION.

As an artist, there were DIFFERENT LEVELS in my career that brought me to a realization that I am what you WOULD CALL a pure artist. And I don't SAY that with any type of vanity.