The kindest thing a director can do is look with open eyes at everything.

The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.

I'm attracted to short screenplays. Nobody really wants a film to be over two hours, or at least I don't.

I think that Peter Jennings is the only decent one of the big three.

I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make, and that gives me hope.

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.

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.