Happy Birthday Jeffrey Jacob Abrams!

What's a bigger mystery box than a movie theater? You go to the theater, you're just so excited to see anything - the moment the lights go down is often the best part.

I try to push ideas away, and the ones that will not leave me alone are the ones that ultimately end up happening.

When you work on something that combines both the spectacular and the relatable, the hyperreal and the real, it suddenly can become supernatural. The hypothetical and the theoretical can become literal.

When I was a kid, it was a huge insult to be a geek. Now it's a point of pride in a weird way.

When I was a kid, among the other embarrassing things I would do, and there's a list of stupid things, but I would make these dumb comedy tapes. I would often make prank phone calls, but I would also do it with friends.

I work with really hard-working people who are really good at what they do.

You can never guess or assume what anyone is going to think.

To me the interesting main character is never the one without flaws.

Whenever a toddler sees a pile of blocks, he wants to tear it down.

Robotics are beginning to cross that line from absolutely primitive motion to motion that resembles animal or human behavior.

You never want to have that ticking clock and know that you had all this time and didn't use it.

I think that even if you're wondering if two characters are ever going to kiss, drawing out the inevitability is part of the fun. Whatever the genre happens to be.

I don't think I have a signature.

I think you have a passion and an obsession for something when it's not necessarily ubiquitous.

Pitching is always a weird, difficult thing.

Whenever I've directed something, there's this feeling of demand and focus that I like.

When I was a little kid - and even still - I loved magic tricks. When I saw how movies got made - at least had a glimpse when I went on the Universal Studios tour with my grandfather, I remember feeling like this was another means by which I could do magic.

I am lucky, I'm the first to admit that.

People never know what they want, though everyone says they do. If they did, nobody would ever be surprised.

The goal is always to do B material in an A fashion.

All I know is that I've made some big screw-ups, and I've done some things that have done all right. I just keep trying to learn from the mistakes I've made.

I hate to look at the stuff I've written and consider what it means or why I do it.

The ability of a television series to make adjustments is something you've got to take advantage of.

I love working with the right actor, and if the right actor happens to be unknown, that should be allowed, too, I think.

As a kid, 'Star Wars' was much more my thing than 'Star Trek' was.