I have a completely romantic idea about making paintings, I guess.

When I made my first film, Basquiat, I think one of the criticisms was that the way I work is episodic. Later, as people started to look at the movies, they started to realize that maybe that's my style. If I could do it better or another way, I guess I would.

I think people have problems sometimes when things are too general. In fact, they are not really general at all.

Everything I've seen becomes real once it becomes memory. The films I've seen are interchangeable with things that have really happened to me.

I guess I am ruthless too because that's what makes a great artist. But I also respect people, I don't go around stepping on their heads.

I think it was so unfair that people attacked Freida Pinto for being an Indian, playing a Palestinian.

When I'm making a movie, I don't like to know what's going to happen next. I like to watch something and be surprised all the time, and just not know, and let it take me wherever.