You always had a few brothers that was speaking on Islam, like my brother's uncle. It wasn't big in my neighborhood, but with certain brothers, it was big. I respected it because Islam is my home. I found my home when Islam came to me. I've been living with it ever since.

Sometimes I say stuff that people may see things more than what I'm seeing. I just say what God sends me, even if I don't know what I'm talking about or I can't break down the revelation of it. I just take what I receive and put it out there to the people.

I try to pace my life out and try not to be too involved with negativity and try to fix what I can fix in my life.

I take life one day at a time.

I got books full of music.

I'm versatile, so however the beat makes me go on it, that's just what it do.

I want to see myself as being the king of this: the king of music, man, and everything I lay my hands on.

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I love so many directors. I love David O. Russell. I love David Fincher, I love Alexander Payne and Jane Campion and my aunt. Spike Jonze. There are just so many amazing directors.

I wanted to be a bartender for a bit.

I like the pharmacy makeup. I always get stuck in that aisle... I've always liked looking at it.

I like the camera to be still and not very shaky and have everything happen within the frame.

My family and I are so close, it's important to have a close knit relationship and to make time to spend with each other, especially at the holidays.

Anyone can create and put stuff out there, so then as viewers and listeners, we have access to a lot of different unique view points.

Being a little naive can work to your advantage.

You can't host an Italian film festival without Marcello Mastroianni. It just doesn't feel right.

I went to a private school, and I struggled academically. It was really disheartening to always be considered bad at that.

I'm always really impressed when a movie can function like a novel does - that's so hard to do.

I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I was bad - I'm not very coordinated. But I always wished I could have been a dancer.

It's hard not to be impressed by my older relatives.

There is always something I gain from watching a movie, whether it's a silly romantic comedy or an art film.

When I was younger, I had pink underneath my hair, and I got detention. I went to an all-girls school where you wore a uniform, and pink hair was not OK.

My mentor in college was Stephen Shore. I loved his color palettes and his taking mundane things but finding them fascinating.

The hardest thing on 'Palo Alto' was letting go because I kept working on it, trying to make it better.

Movies are a collaboration, I feel, so I didn't think of myself as an authoritative figure as much.

When I was a baby, my mom was always bringing me onto set.

I didn't go to film school. My Grampa always says just watch a lot of movies. He didn't go to film school; he went to theatre school. It's interesting to learn about the technical side of it, but I think it's more important to learn about writing and working with actors.

I think when you do things outside of what you're interested in, you meet people and get ideas to bring in to whatever it is you love doing the most.

I guess I knew my dad was into photography, so a part of me was interested in picking it up to understand him a little better.

I've always been very comfortable in a set environment. All the collaborating going on, seeing how actors work - it all excites me.

After college, I drove across the country twice with friends. It was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life. I find it really inspiring seeing the country that way.

I liked to drive around, just playing music for everyone.

As a teenager, I wanted to be sophisticated and avant-garde, and I was really judgmental. But when you're a teenager, you're fearless because you don't know the repercussions to anything.

I don't really wear makeup. I don't like the feeling of it. I just put mascara on, and that's kind of it.

I love Serge Lutens orange blossom perfume; my mom got it for me. It's my favorite. It just smells clean.

I'm Italian, so I need to get someone to wax my eyebrows, but I'm not so good at keeping it up.

I studied photography at Bard, but I just felt tired of it. Someone asked me to be in a video but didn't want to be in it, so they told me to make my own, and that seemed more fun to me.

To a certain extent, I like fashion, but sometimes I just want to be comfortable and don't really care.

I don't like shopping, so I'll look online. I like going to the flea market at the Rose Bowl every once in a while. I like the same stores, Opening Ceremony and APC.

I enjoy fashion photography and textiles, that whole aspect of it. As more of an art form, I like Proenza Schouler. Those guys are really cool because they seem to have an interesting approach to it all.

We definitely have to support other female directors because there's not enough of us.

I think what's so great about making your first feature film is that you're so naive in some ways; you don't know what to expect, and you don't question things as much because you're just trying to figure it out as you go.

I really learned a lot when I worked on my grandpa's film 'Twixt' and got to be with him start to finish and sit next to him every day. That was my film school.

So many of the kids on television have really nice clothes, perfect skin and hair.

I love working with other people and bouncing ideas off them.

I knew I wanted to make a movie that hadn't really existed in a while in terms of being a teenager.

I always knew my mom was a good actress.

When I graduated, I felt a little burned out on taking pictures after so many years of churning out so many for classes.

Chanel is a brand that is so inspiring.

Most people think of Las Vegas, and they think of extravagance. But it's really a mix between fantasy and laziness.