Cruelty might be very human and very cultural, but it is not acceptable and it is not an option.

I am the luckiest filmmaker I know.

Look, it's terrible, I know, but weakness really, really bugs me, to the point that if there is a wounded bird on the sidewalk, I look at it and I go: I think I'll just kick it.

I make dark dramas, movies about people living in desperate fear who then overcome that fear and find a heroic side to themselves.

There is nothing more beautiful than finding your course as you believe you bob aimlessly in the current. And wouldn't you know that your path was there all along, waiting for you to knock, waiting for you to become. This path does not belong to your parents, your teachers, your leaders, or your lovers. Your path is your character defining itself more and more every day.

But the reason I became, why I wanted to be in the business was because there was Midnight Cowboy.

The best reason to make a film is that you feel passionately about it.