All the traditional westerns are about choice and the individual. When progress comes it's much more difficult to define the individual in that world.

It's always good to keep people guessing.

My agent called and said, 'How do you feel about a pirate movie? I mean, how often are you going to get that call? It's sort of the singularly most failed genre of our time, but I thought it had to be attempted one more time. I think there's something rebellious about pirates, something revolutionary about them. They came out of a time when things were oppressive; you could get hung for stealing a loaf of bread. For me, the Pirates films are about when it's right to break the rules to achieve what you want.

I like horror movies, and in fact I like them even more now after making one. I just think they're much more liberating because you don't really have to apply a very strict logic.

Reading in a sound booth seems very strange. Everyone has a process they are comfortable with; this was uncomfortable for me.

Nothing's occurring in animation - you manufacture everything.

Drama is drama, and it's really... if it's something small, you put a magnifying glass up to it; if it's something big, you use a wide lens.