When Tetro came out, I met with Warren Beatty for the first time. I had, like, a four-and-a-half-hour lunch with him, and then over the next five years continued to meet with him and go to his house.

[Woody Allen] does very few takes, and he doesn't give a whole ton of directions, although he does give direction.

There's a lot of complicated magical reasons why I'm not at the party that are too long and semantic to go into.

[Warren's Beatty] first film being with this very important director [Elia Kazan], I think we related on that in a big way. And I just was genuinely curious about his experiences in film, and about the people he knew.

That's a lot more legitimate than the retail therapy I do.

Each time demands its own kind of film.

But even a kid, directing was something that I did. I made short films in school. I feel like I've been in the best film school in the world.