If it was a choice between making movies and doing nothing, he'd probably still wish me to make movies, So he made me keep going.

If the movie is quiet I generally feel the audience is busy. That's when they're working.

I think a lot of people do big movies not because they are talented artists but because they can function in the circumstances.

I grew up pretty much prevented from knowing anything from Communist China except that they were the bad guys that stole our country.

When you talk about God, the first thing that comes along is not love, it's fear. You have to fear, and be in awe. You have to be scared. Any religion, it's like first thing.

I don't have a checklist. Whatever material excites me, they'll call for a certain genre or combination of genres. It'll come naturally and I'll be eager to learn how that thing works. I learn the rules, and I'll probably break some of them.

Basically the movies I make are my life, so I choose how I want to live my life for the next two years. So that's a decision I have to make. At some point if I feel there are enough elements - it doesn't even have to have great characters or great stories - it's just elements that can get my excitement and curiosity for one or two years, then I'll jump in and I'll find out what that is. Then I have to do [interviews like this] and rationalize why I do this.