There are no ordinary lives.

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?

It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime and ending with the hard facts of autumn.

I enjoy total creative control right now. Nobody tells me to make it longer, shorter, better, sexier, more violent, whatever.

Filmmaking is essentially about entertainment, but it's amazing to realize that it has this other muscle that could actually help. Do you know what I mean? People permit entertainment to wash over them, but every once and a while, entertainment - and this is entertaining - also galvanizes something else and that would be a really good thing to have happen in this case.

When you are editing, the final master is Aristotle and his poetics. You might have a terrific episode, but if people are falling out because there are just too many elements in it, you have to begin to get rid of things.