No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you're keeping the man-child alive.

We only have two hours to change people's lives.

(Acting) is an extension of life. How you're capable of performing in your life, that's how you're capable of performing on screen.

I won't make shorthand films, because I don't want to manipulate audiences into assuming quick, manufactured truths.

Films today show only a dream world and have lost touch with the way people really are... In this country, people die at 21. They die emotionally at 21, maybe younger... My responsibility as an artist is to help people get past 21... The films are a roadmap through emotional and intellectual terrain that provides a solution on how to save pain.

To me there is a name for each person. I think it’s marvelous to have a name. A woman is not a woman. It’s either Gena or my mother or some other person.

I'm not good at comparing and contrasting. I take what's in front of me for what it is, although I guess there's something about Paul's realistic writing that is like Cassavetes.