My job is going to be to direct the film - I'm going to do it. And that's where my job ends.

Most filmmaking is about shaking hands and just starting.

My existence is about making movies, so I've just got to rock and roll with the punches. You want to make movies on telephones, I'm there.

My grandfather lived to be 96 years old. He was born in a town outside of Salerno in Southern Italy. He came to New York when he was 20. He lived in the States from age 20 to 96, but he brought his culture with him, he brought his food with him, he brought his language with him, he never spoke a word of English.

The more you get into any religion, it becomes the same. It really becomes how you treat other people and how you get outside yourself. How you look to help other people, and how you get out of this 'I, me, mine' type of thing.

I'm a lapsed Buddhist like I'm a lapsed Catholic. I take it to a point.

Even if you're a poet sitting in your room writing a poem, you're still in the world - although I guess being a poet is a different than having to deal with 40 or 50 people to raise a couple million bucks and all that bullshit.