If a scene doesn't work on three levels - it's not advancing the story, the characters, and telling me something new - then put it in the trash.

I really wanted our male characters to be a lot stronger. We gave them careers, lives.

Meryl [Stripe]spoke out about the low percentage of female critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Why are there 760 male critics and just 168 women? You are immediately [biased] on what kind of films you are being told to go see. What are you told are good films? Male films.

I was told 50 percent of the population gets cancer. Everybody is going to be affected.

I think it's true that the more sanitized a person is, you can't really relate to that person.

You actually do confront your dark side, your impulses, or your feelings of sibling rivalry in Cinderella or whatever. You admit that they exist and then you work through them and conquer them and come out living happily ever after having learned something. That's one reason why the fairy tales keep having traction and meaning.

If a scene doesn't work on three levels - it's not advancing the story, the characters, and telling me something new - then put it in the trash.