I feel about romance the same way I do about a vocation; it's a calling.

I want to make movies that people see. I really think that movies are the most popular form of story telling ever and have such a huge impact on culture when they do.

You need those people to also have power and authority, and in a way that has been the story of my career.

I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director.

That was cool, because they've all [ George Clooney and Josh Brolin and Scarlett Johansson] worked with the Coens. They were much more at ease with them at the outset, and they were all kind of familiar with the shorthand that the Coens had.

That's something that Francis [Ford Coppola] would always say. I remember when I was doing Tetro, he said, "Stay innocent. I'm 69 years old, and I'm still innocent."

I got turned down for a million jobs until I got my first movie with Francis [Ford Coppola].