If you don't have the story and the unfolding of the trajectory of the saga, it's like getting in a car and not having any gas.

The area of teenage life is not necessarily rarefied; we've all gone through that period. It's not as rarefied as a western or a space adventure or a gangster film, but it has its own dynamic.

I have my ideas of what a good documentary is, but drama is a different animal because you're arranging everything.

Even if you try to copy a film shot by shot, you still can't. It's still your own film.

If it were up to the executives, they probably wouldn't have directors at all.

Modern-day cinema takes the form of a sermon. You don't get to think, you only get to receive information.

A lot of times, I relied on connections through my agency, just for financing and things like that. Even when I'm looking for a million and a half dollars to do a small film, there can always be hold-ups, because it's a large amount of money for some people, and it's a small amount of money for other people. In any case, it's significant enough to where you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it to happen. Sometimes, the people who are helping you can drop the ball. And, of course, the reason agents want you to do bigger projects is that they make a bigger cut.