"With Patton, understanding the second World War is required spiritual learning for anyone born in the later 20th century going forward. You know, I could list 50 films, but that one… There’s something about the mantle of celebrity, mixed with a really good rendering of military tactics, and finally, George C. Scott’s performance… I mean, really, if you look at them, it’s Ben Kingsley and George C. Scott that have me put them on the list, because they make those portraits feel so authentic. This idea that, “I’ve been here in countless guises before,” this hint at reincarnation, if you will, and destiny. This questing for destiny is something I feel in my life. I’m put here at this moment, in this time, when social media is doing what it’s doing, and filmmaking has reached this kind of new zenith, and I feel like everything I’ve been born and raised and taught and experienced has put me here for a particular reason, and I just know it’s gotta be something. The fact that Patton feels that, this quest for destiny, that he’s supposed to be doing something… You know, the actual morality of war… Karl Malden’s character, who’s nowhere near the forceful personality and couldn’t probably whip a battalion into shape in the way that Patton does — you need both guys. But ultimately when it goes on, Patton doesn’t know when to stop, and I love that they dramatize that. He’s being interviewed and he talks about the Russians, that he should just keep going and fight the Russians — “We’re going to have to fight that war sooner or later” — and oh, guess what? In the news today is this Crimea issue, and you sort of go, “Boy, what does that mean? How are we going to relearn that lesson?” So there’s just so much stuff wrapped around it that’s relevant and interesting, and it’s a story well-told. Just the way they set up the conflict and everything, I love it, love it, love it."

"I tell people that my favorite film is Gandhi, but my actual favorite film is Patton. Well, you know, there’s so many ideas in the two of them. You know, Patton says, “God help me; I love it so,” with regard to war, and Gandhi is willing to die and to encourage a lot of other people to be willing to die in service of a peaceful civil disobedience. So both things have to do with creating change. So, with Gandhi, I think Ben Kingsley’s portrait — just physically, how he looks, and the way he sounds when he’s delivering that sentient dialogue — and then Attenborough’s canvas — the visual canvas of India, the trains and all that stuff — and then, just my knowledge of the history of people pushing back against colonialism; all of those things just lift you up. They lift you up. The idea of Martin Sheen reporting back to America about what he’s seeing and the obvious lessons that are learned from these people who are willing to walk into abuse in order to make the point that they should be free — I love it because it’s like, “What can we learn from places and people around the world?” I love that. I love the international richness of it, the cultural richness."