I’m hearing that Transcendental Meditation is all about the inner peace and bliss and removing negativity. But your own work contains a lot of very interesting explorations of negativity and violence and ugliness in the human soul. So I’m trying to kind of square those two. And it almost seems like those are at odds. It seems like the traditional aesthetic around meditation is more like a

I really do understand the importance of meditation. A lot of artists and great thinkers believed in meditation: George Harrison, Allen Ginsberg. Even reading is a process of deep reflection and meditation. As Jonathan Franzen said it, it’s learning to live alone with yourself and understand yourself. But are there limits to meditation? And how do we externalize what we achieve inside—we have

As a successful working artist, what advice can you give to other aspiring creative people in today’s world of decreasing wages and benefits for supporting themselves but also being able to do their art?

It’s such a tricky business. You want to do your art, but you’ve got to live. So you’ve got to have a job, and then you’re too tired when you finish that to do your art. And so much of this is

I’ve been a practicing Buddhist for quite some time, and I’m also a student filmmaker. So I can really see where you have all these connections with meditation and filmmaking. And I was wondering whether this stemmed from a specific religious practice or religious tradition or if it stemmed into a specific religious practice or religious tradition for you.

Transcendental Meditation, as you

I got one big question all kind of muddled in here—don’t know quite how to say it, but I’ll try to get it out. Insofar as the physical act of going to the movies can mimic or mirror falling asleep and participating in a dream, that your cast of characters, your protagonist, is you—you’re participating, but not in control—that you’re affected by it, and not, at the same time—do you believe that