I haven't met anybody who hasn't been able to describe years and years and years of very, very difficult struggle through the whole process of achieving anything whatsoever. And there's no way to sort of get around that.

The theme that runs through my movies is the fact that we create barriers for ourselves....because we say, Well, I can't do that. But in the end, you can't do it unless you can imagine yourself succeeding at it.

Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.

I like to say that films are never finished, they're only abandoned.

Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.

I grew up in San Francisco. And so I'm informed in a certain kind of way about, you know, believing in democracy and believing in America. And I'm a very ardent patriot.

That had always been my purpose: to get people back in touch with what makes us so valuable as a human race.