Levitt: "Every day I've got to be thankful that I am alive, and you never know - the cliche is, I guess, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so you'd better be at peace with whatever you got going at the moment."

Levitt: "Harlem was the one apartment I had where it wasn’t so looked down upon to be extroverted."

Levitt: "The spiral in a snail's shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it's also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It's the same ratio that you'll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world."

Levitt: "If you're going to put yourself above everybody else, you might end up alone."

Levitt: "Storytelling in general is a communal act. Throughout human history, people would gather around, whether by the fire or at a tavern, and tell stories. One person would chime in, then another, maybe someone would repeat a story they heard already but with a different spin. It's a collective process."

Levitt: "I really try to make movies as good as I can, and create a convincing character who means something to me and maybe other people. The notion of celebrity is kind of saying, ‘All that doesn’t matter. We’re not interested in the story you’re trying to tell. What interests us is you, your name, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, quote-unquote, and who you’re dating or what you’re eating or…’ And to me, that’s like, Wow, so you’re saying what I love and spend so much time caring about is irrelevant and doesn’t matter? F*ck you, too."

Levitt: "The whole concept of celebrity pisses me off. While I’m not a celebrity, it’s such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors."

Levitt: "I miss New York enormously. I was born and raised in L.A. My family’s here. And here, I live in a house where I have space. I like to pace, you know? I like to be able to sing out loud or maybe yell spontaneously."

Levitt: "The thing about Occupy is that the sentiment the movement embodies is timeless: Don't be greedy, share."

Levitt: "When I was a teenager, if anyone recognized me for anything I did, it would ruin my day. I couldn't handle it. It was some sort of neurotic phobia. I guess I was paranoid that people would treat me differently, or in an unfair way, because of my job."

Levitt: "Celebrity doesn't have anything to do with art or craft. It's about being rich and thinking that you're better than everybody else."

Levitt: "Ummm... well, the only thing I want to do is stuff with people who care about what they're doing, which sounds obvious, but it's really not."

Levitt: "I think there is something beautiful in reveling in sadness. The proof is how beautiful sad songs can be. So I don’t think being sad is to be avoided. It’s apathy and boredom you want to avoid. But feeling anything is good, I think. Maybe that’s sadistic of me."

Levitt: "The most valiant thing you can do as an artist is inspire someone else to be creative."

Levitt: "I spent a lot of time - most of my days - thinking about what it would be like to be facing death while I was shooting “50/50”. But to be honest, I think about that all the time anyway."

Levitt: "When I started editing on my home computer, I said to myself, 'Well, I could be at home studying for a class or I could be at home editing a video.'"

Levitt: "The sun is such a lonely star. Whenever he comes out to see his friends, they all disappear."

Levitt: "Normally you read a screenplay - and I read a lot of them - and the characters don't feel like people. They feel like plot devices or cliches or stereotypes."

Levitt: "I was just watching baby videos of me and I was obviously an exhibitionist."

Levitt: "The movies I watch and the music I listen to and the books I read - those are important to me. It's very important to me, and I don't know what I would do without those things."