A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs.

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

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.

The best cinema is about ethics.

That's how I like to do it with actors, have them really go for it and I'll tell them when it's too much. It's always easier to bring it back then to push it further.

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

I like to think of film-making not just as an act of personal self-aggrandisement but rather as an act of public service.