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

I made this movie for $40,000, which was this little black-and-white horror film called Dementia 13, which we made in about nine days.

They needed someone to write a script of The Great Gatsby very quickly for the movie they were making. I took this job so I'd be sure to have some dough to support my family.

I was raised as a Catholic, but I didn't like the Catholic Church at all. I thought the nuns were mean.

Usually, the stuff that's your best idea or work is going to be attacked the most.

I believe that filmmaking - as, probably, is everything - is a game you should play with all your cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you've got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it everything I have. I think everyone should, and I think everyone should do everything they do that way.

I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A teacher took away my guard button.