In some ways, many of the skills you have as a producer on independent films also apply to making big tentpole films: You surround yourself with a brilliant director, great script and talented people in every department who are smarter than you.

The films you're making have to be faithful to the material.

I got a few things, because I think the props are so beautiful as much as anything else. The detail of the work is something that one has no idea of.

I love books. I read voraciously, and I happened to have been fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time.

A lot of things change and a lot of things stay the same, they mostly stay the same.

I don't think you can be a director without a kind of sense of competitiveness.

I think it's great to see how they've grown up, not just as actors but as people. They're still very much the same kids that I met many years ago. They've grown up and they are funny and wicked and naughty and bright, and I think as actors their work is just getting better and better. They've blossomed.