I'm interested in ordinary experience, and regardless of the precise definition of ordinary, and I've found that in so-called ordinary experience, there is as much comedy, tragedy, sadness, as there is in great drama. And I don't invent it, I recognize it.

I'm in no way suggesting that I succeed, but it's inspiring to read somebody who does succeed and from whom, in a general way, you can draw examples and nourishment and sustenance.

Of course there's conscious manipulation! Everything about a movie is manipulation ... If you like it, it's an interpretation. If you don't like it, it's a lie - but everything about these movies is a distortion."

My goal is to make as many films as possible about different aspects of American life.

Even if I know I'm going to go to a church, I don't know what the minister's going to say.

I'm drawn to making movies about contemporary life. The reason I choose institutions is because they provide a limit, a boundary.

Making movies is an effort is an attempt to leave a trace of your existence.