I want people to surprise themselves. Instead of saying "Oh, god, didn't we already do this 17 times?"

Take ownership of every decision you make because you will be hold responsible for the film, whether good or bad.

I have great appreciation for people who do anything well. I think that it's very difficult to do what you do well.

I want stuff to play as wide as possible. I want to be able to see... if I could play the whole thing in a master and it could be compelling enough, that'd be great. Then it simplifies my day, it simplifies life for the actors when you could just focus on that. But by the same token I don't want to be forced into coverage. So I want it to be as good from every angle and I need to get as many of the kind of shadings that I want from every angle.

When I'm watching somebody act, it's a behavior editorial function - I look at someone act, and I might say, 'I don't believe him when he says that.' I don't know why I don't believe him, probably because the people that I've met, they don't act like that when they say stuff like that and mean it.

Movies aren't finished, they're abandoned. And you have to make your peace with that.

I don't have the Tom Hanks fans. When you make the kind of movies I make, you get weird letters from people.