Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico.

At HBO, they seem to be well-informed. They make what I think are really quite mature films.

In my view, the operas of Carlisle Floyd will find a place in the permanent repertoire.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

There were movies that always made me want to be a director. You see brilliant scenes and the way the emotions were handled. I thought, I'd really like to do that.

In silent movies, they tended to put the camera down, and everybody walked in front of it and acted, and then they all walked off. Cutting was quite infrequent.

When we were trying to get the money together for the film, one reason that was consistently given for not investing in it was that everyone kept saying no one could direct it well enough to entertain an audience for 100 minutes essentially watching three people chatting in the kitchen.