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.

There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.

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

I never wanted money worries to slow me down or make me take a job I didn't want.

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.

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