Just because I make films doesn't mean I think they're great. I just make them and then when I'm done with them I'm just a filmgoer like I always am. They're all lessons. I'm still in film school, honestly. And this one is just a dry run for whatever the next one is.

If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie.

The worst thing for people to say about your movies is, "Yeah, it was pretty good, but it was too damn long.".

I spend a long time casting, but once I've cast a film there's a reason why I selected those people. So I'm hands-on in selecting the cast, hands-off to see what they do with their characters, and hands-on again to offer suggestions.

This is how good movies get made and always have: from the gut instinct of the financiers, not just by committee and research.

A book is a book, but a movie is a movie. The more faithful you are, the more you'll come up with Harry Potter #1 and #2, which are like filmed books on tape. They're so petrified of turning off the readers that they make no concessions to the fact that they're trying to make a piece of cinema.

As the years go by and I make more films, I am increasingly interested in capturing place as a vivid backdrop for my films.