I want studios to be financing director-driven, auteurist cinema, as they did in the '70s. I think it's starting to happen now. Plus, because of how our world has changed politically, I think audiences are demanding more realism. We need to have more stuff in our culture about what is really going on right now.

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

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.

As the years go by and I make more films, I am increasingly interested in capturing place as a vivid backdrop for my films.

Hollywood films have become a cesspool of formula and it's up to us to try to change it... I feel like a preacher! But it's really true. I feel personally responsible for the future of American cinema. Me personally.

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

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