James Cameron

Star Wars helped.

And I've talked to George Lucas about this.

I said, there are untold people that you've inspired, George, but I'm one of them.

But in a way, I don't think he was...

quite wanted the answer that I gave, which was I was already seeing all that stuff in my head.

And when I saw Star Wars, I thought, if that could be the highest grossing film in history, then the stuff that I'm seeing in my mind when I listen to fast electronic music and imagine space battles and all this crazy stuff, it's like, I should be doing that.

There will be a market for it.

There's a market for my imagination.

And that's maybe the boldest step is the step you take internally where you give yourself permission to at least go try it.

And when you make that commitment, you have to go in wholeheartedly.

You can't say, okay, I want to be a filmmaker part-time.

but I'm going to sort of keep a foot in medical school.

It's not going to work.

You've got to go.

You've just got to jump out of the plane and hope you're wearing a parachute.

So I always tell people that opportunities come along and they're fleeting.

And that door will open for a moment, and then it'll slide closed.

And you've got to be—fortune favors the prepared mind.

If it's really something you love, read as much as you can.

Prepare your mind ahead of time.