I've always wondered where explanations end and excuses begin.

Language can be used to so many diverse ends. It can be used to clarify and, of course, it can be used to obfuscate, confuse, evade.

Those who cannot condemn the past repeat it in order to remember it.

If you want to trick someone with a photograph, there are lots of easy ways to do it. You don't need Photoshop. You don't need sophisticated digital photo-manipulation. You don't need a computer. All you need to do is change the caption.

Philip Glass once told me, "They can always copy what you've done, but they can't copy what you're going to do."

You can think of my films as cautionary tales, but you might even think of them as despairing tales, because at least in a cautionary tale, you have this idea that by listening to the story you can assure a better outcome. Whereas I'm not at all convinced that's the case. In fact, if anything, I'm convinced that it's the opposite.

The perfect war is started for obscure reasons, is hopelessly murderous, and accomplishes nothing.