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

Acting is a lot easier than people think it is.

I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor.

I always wanted 'Sideways' to be like a great 1960s Italian film.

But it's just that the whole country is making generally lousy films these days and has been for quite a while. That's the big problem that we all have to think about.

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

Whenever I'm asked about independent cinema, I think of what Fidel Castro said during the Cold War about the league of non-aligned nations. He said that really, there were only two non-aligned nations: the U.S. and the USSR. The rest of us have to be aligned somewhere. I say similarly, in a way, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros. are the only true independents, because they're the only ones who can do whatever they want and have distribution for their films built in.