James Cameron

In the avatar universe, I see you can mean I understand you.

It can mean very simply, I see you, you're here, hello.

It's like hello.

It can be I see something about you I never saw before.

I understand you.

It can mean I love you.

meaning that fullness of understanding another person that goes to a higher level.

It's got many layers of meaning in Navi lore.

It's very deceptively simple.

But it goes back to that empathy thing.

It goes back to the mirror neuron.

It goes back to projecting yourself into their situation.

I also find that...

There's a little thing I do where it doesn't matter where I am, especially if I'm in a car or I'm just meeting some driver that's driving me from the airport or I'm on the street or I'm killing time someplace.

I just start talking to people.

And I want to hear their story.

People that the average person would think that a person like me would never talk to.

The janitor, the guy selling the churro.

I just want to talk to them.

Maybe it's a writer's instinct to want to hear stories because I think everybody is a universe.