I also feel like I've learned over the years what is not important, and that is also great: to know what is pointless to spend your energy on, to be more specific.

I didn't work very much when they were young, and I had the luxury to be able to do that. Most people can't.

Acting, for me, is exhausting. I'm always more energized by directing. It's more intense to direct. I can pop in and express myself, then pop out again. It's a huge passion for me.

I don't have a burning desire to act strangely enough. I don't know that if I hadn't been an actor as a young person, I don't know that I ever would have chosen this because it's not really my personality.

I make movies about people in spiritual crisis because it's a way for me to spend the time, the energy, the focus and the obsession to come to terms with my own spiritual crisis.

I think Anna and the King is a look at Asia from the Asian perspective, reflecting the Asian experience, which is very rare.

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