I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.

I'm considered to some degree a successful director working in Hollywood, making films my way but using studio financing. But with almost every single one, I get praised up the wazoo by people who never would have financed the films. It's: "Gee, this movie is so new and different - what do you want to do next?" "This." "Oh, that's too new and different."

I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make, and that gives me hope.

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

I mean, look, I love movies, not just the ones I make... In fact, I don't like the movies I make very much.

I still have energy and some degree of youth, which is what a filmmaker needs.

I think about what movie I would like to see. I don't think of them as a correction or palliative. I certainly am irritated by anything that's shot in the Midwest and filled with these noble people. "Oh, they're so good, and they're so honest..." I'm not interested in that. I just think of what's right for a movie.