Without a doubt, I was born to want to make cinema, but the kind of cinema I want to make is not like commercial movies, which I enjoy myself, but I wanted to be the kind of filmmaker who wrote original work, sort of like a novelist would who deals with who we are and our times or our relationships.

I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, the solo flute for Toscanini.

People feel the worst film I made was 'Jack.' But to this day, when I get checks from old movies I've made, 'Jack' is one of the biggest ones. No one knows that. If people hate the movie, they hate the movie. I just wanted to work with Robin Williams.

Cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby.

Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it.

The professional world was much more unpleasant than I thought. I was always wishing I could get back that enthusiasm I had when I was doing shows at college.