I was born in 1942, so I was mainly aware of Howard Hughes' name on RKO Radio Pictures.

You've got to love something enough to kill it.

There's a way that the force of disappointment can be alchemized into something that will paradoxically renew you.

I always wanted to make a film that had this sort of Chinese-box effect, in which you keep opening it up and opening it up, and finally at the end you're at the beginning.

The real truth, I thought, in terms of what faith is and what Christianity is.

Always get to the set or the location early, so that you can be all alone and draw your inspiration for the blocking and the setups in private and quiet. In one sense, it's about protecting yourself; in another sense, it's about always being open to surprise, even from the set, because there may be some detail that you hadn't noticed. I think this is crucial. There are many pictures that seem good in so many ways except one: They lack a sense of surprise, they've never left the page.

Any film, or to me any creative endeavour, no matter who you're working with, is, in many cases, a wonderful experience.