You have to know that your collaborators want you to make the movie that you want. Don't back down because you think it's nice to them. You need to have the film be the way that you want it.

Truthfully, my films don't get funded, they get adopted - and are made thanks to the generosity of others.

The biggest challenge for me in every film is believing that what I have to say is important enough to have lots of people collaborate to make a whole movie. I work on this belief every day.

I'm constantly telling young people that their voices and stories are important. Making a movie is such a large-scale, intense operation that imagining that you "deserve" to be making it is - well, complex.

The films I find boring are the ones that have no space for the audience's misconceptions.

To be a great artist, you have to be willing to take risks and to do things that no one would ever pay you for - at first.

You have to know that your collaborators want you to make the movie that you want. Don't back down because you think it's nice to them. You need to have the film be the way that you want it.