We are such skeptics that we find it difficult to believe in God and angels and a spiritual afterlife, but a moment of fear makes our spirit so vulnerable that it allows us to believe in something beyond that.

I believe that pain can be a rite of passage into learning. I believe that the worse thing that can happen is the sin of banality and comfort. Those things are in my movies, but also my movies are quite the fruit of somebody who defines himself as an agnostic.

I love REAL set construction and think that sets are very important part of the storytelling and scope of a film.

At some point, in order to gain his identity, the kid goes "I'm not my dad" or "I'm not my mom."

I try to find inspiration in books, paintings, illustrations and the one thing I try to avoid is just being inspired by other movies, because then you just are talking about movies in movies. I try to talk about movies that are culturally and spiritually a little more diverse.

As a first-time director, you cannot have final cut. But as a producer, you can have final cut.

If you get bored with nothing to do, you are not a writer.