Quotes from Tom Shadyac

I think laughter is a sacred act.

I was paid $8 or $9 million for 'Evan Almighty.' I didn't want that money.

To me, 'Ace Ventura' is as scriptural and sacred as any movie I've ever done because it's childlike.

Nothing in nature takes more than what it needs

I hope people start to look at their lives as the most powerful, creative act they will ever offer this world.

Hope is the belief we might get it done, and faith is the knowledge we will get it done.

I don't consider anything I'm doing as generous. In the new model of the world, I hope people will consider whatever I'm doing as just normal.

When you do something in a nonviolent way, people will die and there will be casualties. But you're taking a different point of view that has a power.

I was raised Catholic and didn't like the dogma and exclusivity of that teaching but I was moved by the moral teachings and by the power of the Jesus fellow.

The second we define someone as a Democrat or Republican, it creates a whole set of limitations.

Authenticity means to be the author of your own life.

The bike accident caused me to start talking about spiritual truths. This accident - where I faced my own death - compelled me to talk about these truths and try to make a movie about them.

Simplicity. Simplicity. Simplicity. The three keys to a spiritual life.

I believe our emotional tension can manifest itself physically.

Show business is part of a larger culture, a world-wide culture that must make up to the fact that the accumulation of things doesn't make a life necessary any happier or purposeful.

There's one fundamental law that all of nature obeys that mankind breaks every day. Now, this is a law that's evolved over billions of years, and the law is this: Nothing in nature takes more than it needs.

The one thing that advances a society is not technology or so-called development; its love - that one principle.

As a culture, I think we need to redefine what it means to be happy.

If you bounce a tennis ball against a wall it will come back to you the same way every time. But if you shift the wall a few degrees it will come back another way.

If I end up homeless and penniless because of a shift in my behavior about sharing what's come to me, bring it on.

One of the challenges of the church is to accept humanity for all it is.

If you look at the Bible as a whole, it's redemptive and beautiful, and it's God's love story to mankind.

I think true success is intrinsic... It's love. It's kindness. It's community.

There is no 'I.' That's an illusion we've got to get beyond.