In 1977, hip-hop literally wasn't outside the boroughs. But I was profoundly aware of the city through films like Saturday Night Fever, The French Connection, and Network. I had a friend who visited New York, and I asked him what it was like. He said, "Oh, it's great. Just wear a coat and don't look anyone in the eye."

Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.

I feel a kinship with anyone who feels that their road, their life or who they really are is not good enough. I really relate to that.

Advice is a form of nostalgia.

All good, clean stories are melodrama, it's just the set of devices that determines how you show or hide it.

Why live life from dream to dream, and dread the day when dreaming ends.

I really believe musical form will go on. There's got to be a way of making musical form in cinema live again.