Yes I try to do everything I can not to fail hideously.

God, I'd love to do a big commercial movie that made a lot of money and whose plot was interesting too.

I loved being in Close Encounters, just to watch Steven Spielberg working was exciting.

I think some of the special effects in Close Encounters hold up better than the new more expensive special effects is because they were better actually.

And I think being a good director is being able to be completely tyrannical and you?ve got to be an absolute dictator while at the same time, you have to listen and see everything because it can all change on a dime.

My dad was born in Chicago in 1908... his parents came from Russia. They settled in Chicago, where they lived in a little tiny grocery store with eight or nine children - in the backroom all together - and my grandmother got the idea to go into the movie business.

I was born on Wellington Avenue and my family that remains lives in the Lake Shore Drive area.