What science-fiction premises do is it gives you a "what-if" prism to look at the contemporary world with a wack on the side of the head.

My flag is always flying. My shingle is always out. I'm always looking for movie ideas. The hardest part of this whole movie-making endeavor is finding ideas. That's the real goal.

A lot of people get stuck, like, "Oh, if it's made by a studio, it can't be independent." Often they link it to the source of financing, or how it's distributed, but I don't really know how you can. A filmmaker will take his money from anywhere. It doesn't matter.

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

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

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

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.