You definitely do not do films for that particular reason. You do them for yourself, for your satisfaction of creating this thing with characters and watching these characters take on real life - that's all you care about.

I never look back and think too much about my films. I've done some work I've been proud of over the years but which of them is my favourite I really don't know. I could say the last one. I've had little jumps in my career like Unforgiven possibly.

Pay attention to the work you want to do and everything'll work out fine. If you're in it for the ego, you might be successful but at a limited level.

Writing is a creative art form and the acting and directing is more of an interpretive art form.

Abuse of power isn't limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if we're not vigilant.

At Waco, was there really an urgency to get those people out of the compound at that particular time? Was the press going to make it look heroic for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms? At Ruby Ridge, there was one guy in a cabin at the top of the mountain. Was it necessary for federal agents to go up there and shoot a 14-year-old in the back and shoot a woman with a child in her arms? What kind of mentality does that?

If somebody's dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they're gonna have to take what they get.