In the moment of making films, I want to share my observations of life, not of other films.

I definitely in filmmaking more and more find writing and directing a means to harvest material for editing. It's all about editing.

Independent means one thing to me: It means that regardless of the source of financing, the director's voice is extremely present. It's such a pretentious term, but it's auteurist cinema. Director-driven, personal, auteurist... Whatever word you want. It's where you feel the director, not a machine, at work. It doesn't matter where the money comes from. It matters how much freedom the director has to work with his or her team. That's how I personally define independent movies.

If you're not making epic, archetypal films on some level, I think you're wasting a great potential of cinema.

Hollywood films have become a cesspool of formula and it's up to us to try to change it... I feel like a preacher! But it's really true. I feel personally responsible for the future of American cinema. Me personally.

The actors are the greatest executors of tone in a film. They're the most important cinematic component.

There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.