When I went home for my freshman summer of college I suddenly gained an enormous amount of time. Without the burden of available friends. a job, or places to go, I did what anyone in my situation would do--make a movie with Lego people. I did all the voices myself, distinguishing the ladies with a fairly pronounced falsetto. All of this occurred while my parents were away so I could rant and rave and use all the profanity I preferred. (For realism's sake of course).
When I returned to school, the movie was a hit (at least among the people I knew well enough to humor me). With this experience in hand, and under the looming deadline for declaring a major, I picked film studies. The more I thought about it the more I had always enjoyed movies. Since I was a kid I wanted to be Marty McFly or Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker. Considering that wasn't exactly possible, I figured I might as well try to craft the kind of stories I thought were the Iliads of our era.
To be able to relate a good story--one that sticks with people throughout their entire lives--is a pretty amazing thing. To do that on a mass scale and for fabulous profit is beyond even that. As an artist I hope to create interesting things from nothing. And if doing that keeps me from pushing papers no one will ever give a second thought to, so much the better.