I think I came to film-making through writing. I started to write, and people, teachers, responded to my writing.

Animators have to live life 24 times as long as we do - every 24 frames of a second.

I've been joking that if Madonna taught us anything, you've got to reinvent yourself. I think it's important as a filmmaker, as any person working in the arts, that you've got to try new stuff and challenge yourself and take chances. I've tried to take a chance with every film I've done - I've never done it the easy way, and I think that's because that's what excites me, is making as big a mountain as I can in front of me, and just trying to mount it.

At the end of Requiem all I wanted to do was get a DV camera and just do a small film. But then the hunger comes back.

Also expressionistic filmmaking - making the audience feel like they were inside the characters' heads. And so we create all these different types of techniques to put the audience there.

I think people are people and if their feelings are real and truthful, they can connect.

I've always wanted to introduce hip-hop filmmaking to film. There's hip-hop art, dance, music, but there really isn't hip-hop film. So I was trying to do that.