I've always had this unresolved desire to prove that I could get a Ph.D., or contribute something else to the world.

As an actor, you hope to obtain this mind meld and sometimes I feel like I'm chasing a horse holding on to its tail and getting dragged, and other times I feel much more velcroed into the saddle. And I'm not the knower of which is better or best as a process, it's just as random as the weather in terms of what my subjective experience is.

If people knew what made hits they'd make more of them, so to have the illusion of control over one's career isn't something I can even pretend to have.

I think that directing is the ultimate martyred task of filmmaking, that it has nobility to it. It takes three years to make a film, for the most part. I think it requires the attentiveness of a mother hen. I don't know how people raise children and direct films. I'm sorry, I don't know, how can you be good at both?

I think certainly directing is a visual medium, but it's also about communication, and a lot of times great directors are lacking in communication skills, which is rather shocking to discover that.

Catholics have guilt and Jews have guilt, fine. But mothers can trump them all.

It's always refreshing to step into another time.