New York has changed amazingly; it's gentrified everywhere, and it's a much gentler place.

It's really terrific to see Pittsburgh recognize the Mattress Factory.

I always thought that people who live in the desert are a little crazy. It could be that the desert attracts that kind of person, or that after living there, you become that. It doesn't make much difference. But now I've done my 40 years in the desert.

To some degree, to control light, I have to have a way to form it, so I use form almost like the stretcher bar of a canvas.

I've always wanted to make a light that looks like the light you see in your dream.

I don't want you looking at the light fixture; I want you looking at where light goes. But more than that, I'm interested in the effect of light upon you and your perceptions.

Art history is littered with work that involves light.

In Arizona, we're at 7,000 feet, so we're above half of the world's atmosphere. It's crisp but hard, a side-raking light that can be revealing but doesn't have the softness that maritime air has.

I started out with projected-light works and working indoors, but I'd prepare the walls - by sanding, etcetera - the way you'd prepare a canvas for painting.

I am interested in the physicality of light itself.

Art does, to some extent, follow economics.

I live in the sky as a pilot, so it has great meaning to me.

If you just add all the time, add more and more light, it loses its meaning.

The lunar cycle within the solar season: that kind of syncopated rhythm is what life relates to.

If you think about art, if you look at Rembrandt and Vermeer and Caravaggio, if you look at Turner and Constable and all the Impressionists and the Hudson River School, there's a tradition of light in art, especially painting.

From the very beginning, I was very interested just in light, and art seemed to be a way to work with it.

In many cases, if we knew what it would take, we might have thought twice about it, so it's often wonderful that we don't have hindsight.

It's possible to gather light that's older than our solar system.

Las Vegas is about distraction.

It's pretty scary to know how quickly time flies.

For me and my films, I want my audience to experience cinema in its full glory. It's not just visual, it's audio as well. It's emotional, and I want you to be engaged with not just the scene but with the characters.

If you don't do the suspense correctly, then your jump scares are not going to work.

For me, what usually makes a horror sequence scary is the journey not the destination.

Isn't it crazy to think that we've explored space more than we have explored the depths of our ocean? That just fires up my imagination about potential sea monsters and cool creatures, that kind of stuff.

'The Exorcist' is one of the finest movies ever made, and it just so happens to be a scary movie.

If I have free time, I want to go to the beach, walk around a shopping mall, go grocery shopping. Live a little bit of life.

'Poltergeist' was really the film that really scarred but fascinated me with puppets and dolls, clowns, and stuff like that. I've always been afraid of clowns, and then my fear of puppets came around, and 'Poltergeist' was the perfect combination to scare me with a clown doll.

If you care about the characters, then whatever scary thing happens to them, you feel it even more.

The size of the budget doesn't make that much of a difference because the kind of issues I have on a low budget film I I have on a big budget film as well, but they're just much bigger.

Having such a diverse cast and crew is what makes the 'Fast & Furious' films so unique to all the other studio tent pole films that just have a very singular look to them.

I'm such an action movie junkie that as an action fan, because action scenes are so heightened, we could never really picture ourselves in that scene. So when you're watching an action movie, you experience an action movie more outside of the aquarium: you know you're out of the aquarium looking in at all the swimming fish that are in there.

The deep sea is a scary world.

'Poltergeist' was the film that scarred me for life. I saw it at such a young age - 5 or 6 years old - and it has one of the creepiest doll sequences with the clown, and ever since then, I've just been fascinated by dolls.

The flack I got for 'Saw' is why I wanted to direct 'Insidious 2.'

'Insidious 2' is a direct continuation of the first movie. We literally pick up from where we left off at the end of the first film. And whereas the first movie is a twist on the haunted house genre, the second movie is a twist on the classic domestic thriller.

I like to think if something scares me, then there's a very good chance an audience will feel the same way. The key is creating scenarios that people can relate to.

I think, like most people, we are familiar with Aquaman. We grew up reading or watching this character on the peripheral. I was never so in depth with Aquaman as, let's say, I was with X-Men.

A lot of these types of films - the vigilante or revenge drama - were so popular in the '70s because there was a feeling in the culture of loss of control.

Not many people remember this, but in the first 'Death Wish' film, Charles Bronson doesn't actually go after the people that hurt his family: he just goes after every punk. He just blows them all away.

I feel like, with most filmmakers of my generation, I like the over-the-top stuff. I like to be wacky and really in your face.

Supernatural movies generally have a much more brooding pace. If you look at films like 'The Sixth Sense' or 'The Others,' it's more building up the characters and building up the situation as opposed to just opening with a big action set piece.

Still one of my favorite movies is the original 'The Haunting.' I love that style.

I think, ultimately, if you create characters that people like and can relate to, your characters are grounded on a human level even if your cars are not.

If you come down to it, there's only a handful of worlds that action films live in. You have your car chases, your gun fights, and your fights.

We all agreed that violence begets violence, and you can't solve issues with more violence.

I think Mel Gibson could make 'Passion of the Christ' because he really believed in it and gave it his all.

Just because I make movies in the scary world doesn't mean I want to visit scary worlds.

I think, when you're a director, you get sucked into your project whether you like it or not, right?

It's good to be finally able to afford food for a change. It's good to move on from potatoes and tin soup.

I cannot state enough how important post-production is for the success of a horror movie. You bring so much to it with the way you edit it, the way it is sound-designed, and the way the music works with it.